Local and Federal Lawmakers are announcing that they are looking to bring the steel industry back to America and possibly even our area. We sat down with these Representatives on Friday to learn about their plans.
Could steel making be coming back to Johnstown? What could soon be a fully operational steel mill is right now just an empty building. Ro Khanna, a California House Representative saying: “We made a huge mistake in this country. We hollowed the place out. A great power needs steel. I don’t understand how you would want to be a great world super power, great economy and not have steel. We need steel in this country.”
The announcement of a new Federal Bill proposed by California House Rep. Ro Khanna coming in Johnstown Friday morning. Khanna says with the Steel Modernization Act, the Federal Government would fund building between three and five new modern steel making facilities. But how does this affect the Johnstown area? Khanna saying: “We are going to prioritize places that had steel plants which left.” This would make Johnstown a prime candidate for a steel mill if the Bill is passed.
Scott Paul, President of the Alliance of American Manufacturing saying: “This is not going to be a steel industry that looks like it did in the 1950s, but it is going to be a steel industry that looks like what it should look like this century.”
Officials say this includes making steel in a cleaner and more environment friendly way, but still includes the local union jobs. When we asked Khanna about confidence moving forward with the Bill, Khanna said: “Who doesn’t want steel in America? Who doesn’t want modern factories in America? This should not be a partisan issue.”
Frank Burns of the 72nd District saying: “When you start bringing steel back to the area, to the average person it means opportunity. This gets right to the soul of our community. When we can show people that we’re producing steel again, it’s going to change the attitudes of people in our community, and it’s going to tell the rest of the world that Johnstown’s on its way back.”
Now this is a new Bill, it’s just being proposed. So it has a long way to go, having to go through the Senate and the House before possibly ending up on the President’s desk.