Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility House passes Burns' bill requiring American-made steel for all taxpayer-funded projects

House passes Burns' bill requiring American-made steel for all taxpayer-funded projects

HARRISBURG, June 9 – The Pennsylvania House of Representatives has approved a bill introduced by state Rep. Frank Burns that’s designed to benefit U.S. workers by requiring construction work receiving public funding or tax incentives to use American-made steel.

State law already requires state and municipal governments to use American-made steel in their projects, but this would extend that requirement to private entities receiving public money.

“This is one way to bring back good-paying, family-sustaining jobs – by leveling the playing field for hardworking people and industries that were economically steamrolled by unfair competition,” said Burns, co-chairman of the state House Steel Caucus.

“This is commonsense legislation that passed near-unanimously. If tax dollars are spent on a project, then it should be made with American steel produced by workers right here in the United States,” Burns said.

This bill is from Burns’ “American Made Jobs Plan,” a package designed to end our economy’s heavy reliance on China and other countries and reverse decades of unfair trade policies, driven by corporate greed and special interests, that have helped wipe out the middle class in Pennsylvania and Cambria County.

The bill (H.B. 1018) was approved 200-2, with two Republicans voting against the bill. It now goes to the Senate for concurrence.