Congressional Steel Caucus Gathers on Capitol Hill

Industry and labor leaders expected to discuss their legislative and policy priorities in a Wednesday hearing.

Wednesday morning Capitol Hill will see a hearing of the Congressional steel caucus, a bipartisan group of dozens of House members who represent parts of the country where steel manufacturing takes place or who just care about the health of the domestic steel industry.

The hearing will feature testimony from industry representatives and labor leaders. And, as always, there will be lots to talk about. Steel is an import-sensitive industry, and trade-related legislation and policy priorities will be discussed.

That will likely include priorities such as continued support for the Section 232 steel action that protects the steel industry – a national security cornerstone that supports critical infrastructure and military capabilities – against global overcapacity in steel and its downstream products.

It will include proposed legislation, such as the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act, which would modernize existing antidumping and countervailing duty trade remedy laws; and the SHIPS for America Act, which would adopt a federal policy framework to rebuild U.S. maritime infrastructure and shipbuilding workforce capabilities. Lawmakers and witnesses will also likely urge the Trump administration to strengthen the USMCA trade deal’s rules of origin, which would prevent China and its voluminous industrial overcapacity from flooding the American market via “backdoor” access to that trade deal.

The hearing will also spotlight Buy America laws, which ensure domestic content preferences in federal infrastructure spending, and call out attempts to roll them back. And it will likely touch on the STOP China Act, which would defend the U.S. transit rolling stock industry from unfair competition with Chinese state-backed manufacturers.

They’ll also hear about how all these proposals are remarkably popular when put in front of voters.  According to recent polling conducted by Morning Consult, Americans say infrastructure projects that use public money should buy American-made inputs rather than imports at a five-to-one margin. By even larger margins Americans believe it is important to manufacture steel domestically for our defense and critical infrastructure needs; that trade enforcement laws should be strengthened; and that a domestic shipbuilding industry is crucial for American security and commercial success.

You can read more about the steel industry’s trade, infrastructure and legislative priorities – as well as some insights into voter sentiment – here.