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WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a joint steel caucus meeting today with Administration officials, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) outlined his concerns regarding the urgent crisis facing the U.S. steel industry. Rockefeller told Commerce Secretary Don Evans that the Administration must address retiree health care costs that hurt American steel makers ability to compete, as well as an expedited decision on a 201 remedy. The following remarks were made by Senator Rockefeller at today’s steel caucus meeting.

"As we wait for meaningful section 201 relief, management, workers and shareholders are already taking heroic measures in hopes of weathering the current crisis. Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel is working furiously on a reorganization plan that will allow it to emerge from Chapter 11. Weirton Steel has taken important steps to restructure and remain competitive. But only comprehensive action, by both Congress and the Administration embracing all tools at our disposal and addressing all the sources of the current crisis can restore these and other threatened firms to solvency and prevent the crisis from destroying our industry once and for all.

"First, trade laws must be enforced. The President must act immediately upon the release of the International Trade Commission's 201 recommendations and impose aggressive tariffs. If necessary, he should use his authority to augment the Commission's recommendations, imposing sanctions strong enough to return steel imports to pre-1998 levels and ensuring that tariffs remain in place at least four years. I hope you will advise the President to act immediately, and fend off those who believe this is a foreign policy matter, rather than an economic and national security.

"The Administration also must retreat from its readiness to gut U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws. I find recent maneuvering that put our trade laws on the table for the next round of WTO negotiations particularly troubling. I believe the Administration's aims in the Qatar round and its desire to obtain fast-track authority from Congress would best be served by working with Congress to shield American firms and workers against illegal acts, rather than unilaterally ceding the protections our workers and businesses need. I have asked Chairman Baucus to hold a hearing on the events in Doha, and look forward to discussing this issue in detail at that time.

"Second, Congress and the Administration must act to dramatically reduce the burden of retiree heath costs. Between 1980 and 1987, the American steel industry eliminated over 270,000 jobs and 70 million tons of steelmaking capacity. These moves dramatically increased the productivity of the American steel worker. But it left American mills with a massive retiree health care obligation.

"More than half-a-million retirees, dependents and surviving spouses – who make substantial contributions of their own, it should be noted – rely on the steel industry for health care benefits. Only America, of all the major steel manufacturing nations, imposes this annual half-billion dollar, $9-per-ton cost on its companies.

"In comparison, Japanese and British health care systems assume these costs through government- backed programs, removing as much as 90% of the burden from retirees and manufacturers. German retirement costs are underwritten through general taxes and private insurers. In Russia, companies merely ignore requirements that they pay insurance costs, throwing workers on the mercy of the state and receiving a de facto subsidy.

"The costs associated with retiree health care not only raise the price of American steel, they prevent mergers that would bring further efficiencies of scale and lower costs to marginal operations. Firms loathe to assume the massive retiree obligations of potential merger partners are forced to limp along rather than improve their competitive position.

"I have introduced the Save the American Steel Industry Act, which would strengthen the industry and protect workers. It would impose a small tax on all steel – imported and domestic – and use the revenue to finance health care for retirees from bankrupt companies. This new fund could be accessed by all steel companies providing health insurance to retirees, and, as the pool of retirees declined, the tax would be reduced. I am open to further discussion with those who suggest the time may not be right for this approach. I am not open to continued inaction. Retiree health care costs are the single biggest drag on continued streamlining of American steel, and any approach that does not resolve this issue is doomed to fail.

"As the third and final element, I know you are hard at work on this already, the Administration must use every tool at its disposal to force other nations into negotiated reductions of manufacturing capacity. Not to do so will ensure another crisis, possibly of greater magnitude, the during the next global economic downturn. And the U.S. as the world's most open major steel market will continue to be expected to absorb global excess capacity.

"The wild gyrations in the price of oil earlier this year showed us the cost of over reliance on foreign sources of vital commodities. The sudden deployment of men and arms to the Middle East remind us of steel's importance to our national security. The empty factories and crippled towns that dot the steel belt testify to the human cost of inaction.

"We have a choice: We can continue our scattershot, uncoordinated approach and watch the U.S. steel industry continue to decline in the face of subsidized and protected foreign competition. Or we can act now, beginning with meaningful 201 relief and action on the issue of legacy costs, and then shifting focus to multilateral capacity reduction talks. I believe I speak for my many colleagues in the Steel Caucus and throughout the Congress when I say that I look forward to the Congress and the Administration coming together in a bipartisan effort to protect jobs and national security, and strengthen this vital industry for many years to come."

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