Washington, D.C.– Yesterday, the Senate passed the Cravaack ‘Buy America’ steel amendment that will create U.S. jobs, increase U.S. steel production, and ensure that more American steel product is used in federal transportation construction projects.  View the Cravaack amendment here.

Previously, after the House Transportation Committee agreed to the Cravaack amendment, Rep. Cravaack was forced to defend ‘Buy America’ from attempts to gut two-thirds of existing ‘Buy America’ requirements and kill the jobs of the 3900 people directly employed by iron ore operations on Minnesota’s Iron Range.  Watch Rep. Cravaack’s defense of ‘Buy America’ here.

Congress is working to produce a long-term reauthorization and reform of federal surface transportation programs.

“I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made toward securing these ‘Buy America’ provisions.  At a time when other countries give massive subsidies to their steel makers, we should at the very least give our steel producers the first opportunity to supply steel for our transportation projects.  Minnesota will not tolerate the importing of cheap and inferior Chinese and Brazilian product at the expense of its workers,” said Rep. Cravaack.

The Cravaack ‘Buy America’ amendment closes loopholes which are exploited by other countries.  Specifically, the amendment prohibits the ‘segmentation’ of projects, a tactic used to avoid the ‘Buy America’ preference.  Closing these loopholes ensures that ‘Buy America’ will be followed and that American jobs and industry will be protected.

• Transparency:  Requires agencies to provide notification on a public website and a 15 day comment period before proposed waivers of ‘Buy America’ preferences are granted
   
• Reporting:  Requires an annual report on the use of ‘Buy America’ waivers for transportation projects, including justification for each waiver and the monetary value for each waiver
   
• Closes the ‘Segmentation’ Loophole:  Ensures that public works projects receiving federal aid cannot be ‘segmented’ to evade ‘Buy America’ preferences.

Rep. Cravaack serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee – where he is Vice Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee – the Homeland Security Committee, and the Science, Space and Technology Committee. The 8th Congressional District covers 18 counties in Northeast Minnesota.

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