Carbondale Reporter

U.S. Rep Mike Bost (R-Ill.) recently joined with his colleagues on the Congressional Steel Caucus to submit a letter to the House calling for stronger support of Buy American policies.

As the country recovers from the pandemic and the House of Representatives considers public works infrastructure investments, the Congressional Steel Caucus is urging that investment be directed toward domestically made iron and steel.

"As a member of the Steel Caucus, I urged House leadership to support strong Buy American policies," Bost said in an April 16 tweet. "When American taxpayer dollars are being spent, we must prioritize spending them on products manufactured by American workers using American material, especially iron and steel."

The letter stated that strong Buy American policies would boost the nation's economic recovery by creating jobs, promote a cleaner environment by using materials that meet U.S. manufacturing standards and strengthen the nation's supply chains of domestic iron and steel.

The caucus also calls for steps to expand Buy America policies to cover all federal infrastructure spending and protect manufacturing processing standards to ensure that raw steel production occurs domestically.

The pandemic exposed weaknesses in the nation's supply chains of domestic iron and steel. The letter concluded that investing in creating a more efficient distribution network of materials will benefit the American manufacturing industry.