Rick Crawford, U.S. Congressman

The US Steel industry, at this moment, is resilient. The Congressional Steel Caucus held its annual “State of the Steel” event this week to hear updates from executives in the industry. The caucus is a bipartisan group of members who work in support of a strong domestic steel industry that supplies good jobs and enhances our national security. I chair the caucus, and the vice chair is my colleague Rep. Frank Mrvan, a Democrat representing northwest Indiana. In my opening remarks, I shared with them several items I am working on in the 118th Congress to strengthen what is now one of the First District’s largest industries. In order to keep America strong, we must continue to focus on moving goods efficiently along our nation’s highways and rails by maintaining our transportation infrastructure at the highest levels, and make certain Congress and the Administration continue to ensure that trade enforcement agencies are taking action to keep unfair trading partners out of our market. I am thankful for the more than100 members of the Congressional Steel Caucus who work together to grow American steel production and American jobs. Despite inflation and economic uncertainty, the industry is growing. In fact, I am proud to say that the First Congressional District of Arkansas is now the largest steel-producing district in the country. The steel industry demonstrates that we can manufacture the highest quality product here in the USA. American steel supports more than two million jobs and is the back-bone of American infrastructure, national defense, and manufacturing. The role of the domestic steel industry throughout the pandemic and subsequent supply chain instability is a testament to its resilience in the face of adversity and its im-portance to the American economy.