Daily Kos: Buy America Stokes Stimulus Packages

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/28/831366/-Buy-America-Stokes-Stimulus-Packages

by The Electrical Worker

Thu Jan 28, 2010 at 07:44:21 AM PST

Leading Republicans say that the administration's $787 billion stimulus plan passed a year ago failed. They claim that tax breaks for business would be more effective than government priming the economic pump in a new stimulus plan—passed by the House of Representatives in December—headed for the U.S. Senate.

* The Electrical Worker's diary :: ::

A new pamphlet by the Alliance for American Manufacturing challenges the charge that the stimulus failed by detailing how "Buy America" laws—on the books for more than 70 years—strengthen government stimulus packages, saving or creating thousands of American jobs.

In eastern Pennsylvania, members of the Steelworkers at ArcelorMittal are busy producing 125,000 linear feet of rail for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. SEPTA’s contract is one of two public transportation rail projects, funded in part by $3.7 million from the stimulus that requires the use of domestically-produced rail. With U.S. steel plants running at 50 percent of capacity during the current recession, and only three rail-producing plants left in the U.S., that mandate is a lifeline in avoiding more layoffs.

In Oregon, United Streetcar is building the first modern streetcars to be manufactured in America in nearly 60 years. The project, supported in part by federal dollars outside of the Recovery Act, is thriving because of Federal Transit Administration "Buy America" language which requires that at least 60 percent of vehicles contain domestic content.

If the legislation under consideration now in the U.S. Senate passes, one of the beneficiaries could be members of Electrical Workers Erie, Pa., Local 56 who perform electrical maintenance and large-scale projects in the 100 year-old locomotive manufacturing plant owned by GE Transportation. The bill includes $800 million for modernizing Amtrak’s fleet. The House jobs bill strengthens "buy American" language which could help GE to land work in the factory which cut 1,500 jobs last September.

FULL story at link.