James Oberstar: “this bill is just as deadly serious for the steel and iron ore mining industry as were loan guarantees Congress approved…”

“this bill is just as deadly serious for the steel and iron ore mining industry as were loan guarantees Congress approved for New York City in 1977 and Chrysler in 1980. The steel import crisis is not over. American steel makers are still cutting production and jobs because of unfairly traded steel dumped in our markets at subsidized prices. Iron ore producers in Minnesota and Michigan, whose only market is the domestic integrated steel industry, are especially devastated by imports of semi-finished steel slab subsidized in Russia and other countries and dumped on our shores displacing our high quality taconite. Layoffs totaling 2,500 jobs were announced just this week by mines in Minnesota and Michigan, on top of hundreds of previous layoffs. I would rather the unfair trade laws worked. I would rather we had duties and countervailing duties and quotas. But they are not being imposed, they are not working, and the loan guarantee initiative will help taconite plants upgrade operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and the loans will be repaid with interest.”