Peter Visclosky: “I rise now to indicate my concern over a provision mentioned by my colleague, the gentleman from West Virginia, a few…”

“I rise now to indicate my concern over a provision mentioned by my colleague, the gentleman from West Virginia, a few minutes ago about the rescission of $10 million from the $145 million Steel Loan Guarantee Program. The problems that the steel industry faces are manyfold, but one is the complete collapse of the ability to get financing, as well as the number of companies now that find themselves in bankruptcy in the United States of America. Since December 31, 1997, we have now had 18 companies declare bankruptcy, and one of the concerns that the industry faces is securing financing. We have a loan guarantee program in place. It took a period of time to get up and running with it. There were initially some problems as far as the bureaucracy contained therein, and the problem continues to persist as far as securing the guarantees for private investment firms to loan the industry money. Today those guarantees are at 85 percent.”