Timothy Roemer: “We on our side of the aisle, Mr. Chairman, support the sense of the Congress amendment to both buy American steel and…”

“We on our side of the aisle, Mr. Chairman, support the sense of the Congress amendment to both buy American steel and also conform to the Buy American Act. We wish we would have had the opportunity to have a school construction amendment on the floor so that this amendment would even mean more. Mr. Chairman, with regard to the colloquy that just took place with the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. DeMint), I want to continue to say that I strongly support this bipartisan bill. However, with the inroads towards removing some flexibility at the local level and delivering dollars directly to the classroom yesterday with the Tiberi amendment, I am glad that we will not go any further on the DeMint amendment and that this conference, I hope, will not go any further. I think if we continue to go through a Straight A's sloganeering, bumper sticker approach that we will lose bipartisan support for this bill left and right and that the tight middle that has held this bipartisan agreement together could erode very quickly.”