Political Quotes

“I rise today to support H.R. 975, The Steel Recovery Act. As a Representative from the State of Michigan and a member of the Steel Caucus, I am well aware of the impact that the flood of cheap steel has had on thousands of families across this country. 10,000 steelworkers have lost their jobs. The ironic aspect of this situation is that it has occurred as the U.S. Steel industry has remade itself into the worldwide leader. It is efficient, it produces a clean, high-quality product, and pumps $70 billion annually into the U.S. economy. Moreover, steel is a vital element of our national security. All the industry wants and needs is the ability to compete with the rest of the world on a level playing field. This is hard to accomplish when steel imports from Japan rise 170% in a single year. Free trade does not mean that the United States becomes the dumping ground for inferior products sold at below the cost of production. We must stringently enforce the antidumping and countervailing duty laws to make sure that such practices do not continue to put American workers at risk. The trick of future trade policy is to ensure the viability of core U.S. industries and the jobs associated with them while slowly penetrating markets that are in many cases overwhelmingly closed to us. I believe that trade and exposure to American products will help break down these barriers, but I also do not believe it is unreasonable to insist that current law be enforced as intended.”