Robert Byrd

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I am authorized by the distinguished majority leader to ask for 5 minutes prior to the vote to be equally divided between Mr. Nickles and myself.

Mr. BYRD

Mr. BYRD. That is right.

Mr. BYRD. I thank the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts. I only want to take a few seconds to thank the majority leader for bringing up the bill which the Senate has reached agreement on which will be voted on tomorrow morning, the iron and oil and gas guarantee bill. The leader made a commitment to bring that bill up; he did not make any commitment to pass it. He did not make any commitment to vote for it. But he made a commitment to bring it up, and he has kept his word. I thank him for that.

Mr. BYRD. I thank my own leader, and I thank Ted Stevens, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and Senator Domenici. They have used their usual skill, good humor, and toughness. I think the Nation is better off as a result. Thank you.

Mr. BYRD. As the distinguished Senator from Alaska will recall, I voted with him previously. But as I explained earlier today, had we amended this bill with a nongermane amendment, it would have killed the iron and the oil and gas guarantee bill. It would have been dead. Because the Speaker made no commitment to help bring up a bill that would have other matters included in it. He only made his commitment with regard to the iron and oil and gas guarantee. So I thank the Senator. I had to vote against the Senator from Alaska on this occasion because I wanted to save the bill before the Senate.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, if the distinguished Senator will yield?

Mr. BYRD. I ask unanimous consent I be allowed to speak.

Mr. BYRD. Absolutely, I admit to that.

Mr. BYRD. I merely want to thank the distinguished Senator for his support in this matter. He comes from a State and represents people who are very much like my State and my people. He understands the problems of the steel industry and the fact that many steelworkers have been laid off, others have lost their jobs permanently. I have to leave to be elsewhere for an hour or so. I will not be able to listen to the Senator's speech. That is why I interrupted him, to apologize for not being here to hear his speech, but to thank him for speaking, thank him for his support in this matter, and also to express my exceedingly high regard for him as a Senator, as a gentleman, and as someone who is dedicated, sincere, conscientious, and always courteous and helpful.

Mr. BYRD. Yes.

Mr. BYRD. Yes.

Mr. BYRD. Yes.

Mr. BYRD. Yes. Yes.

Mr. BYRD. Precisely, they would have.

Mr. BYRD. Absolutely.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I was one of those who worked on the amendments. I thank those who participated. I thank Mr. Domenici. I thank Mr. Gramm and Mr. Nickles. We all met, and I agreed on the amendments. I think they were good proposals. I think overall they improved the bill. I thank all Senators who were engaged in the efforts. I thank the chairman of the Appropriations Committee for his fine cooperation.

Mr. BYRD. I thank the Senator from Massachusetts.

Mr. BYRD. I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the Chair. I also thank the very distinguished Senator from Alabama, Mr. Sessions, for his comments and for his work on this bill. I thank, as well, Mr. Shelby, the senior Senator from Alabama, for his support and for the work that he has contributed to this legislation. I feel very good about having their support. They are both very able Senators, and they are utilizing their talents in the best interests of the Nation in supporting this legislation. American steelworkers earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow. That is in accordance with the edict that was placed upon man when God evicted Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Steelworkers are earning their daily bread by the sweat of their brow amid the glow of productive glass furnaces filled with molten steel. American fortunes were built on their backs. Their collective might forged a national defense and a national economy second to none. Today, after almost 20 years of downsizing and rightsizing and modernizing, just 160,000 steelworkers are employed in state-of-the-art American steel mills, compared to some 400,000 --400,000--in 1980. The industry, which retooled to adapt to international market changes, is now a world class--a world class--competitor, even while adhering to high U.S. safety, labor, and environmental standards. But the ranks of American steelworkers, it appears, are in danger of future cuts that could undermine their ability to support U.S. priorities. This situation is not, as some would have us believe, due to a failure of the steel industry to economize or to increase efficiency. America's steel industry serves as a model in the art of modernizing to enhance competitive prowess. America's steel producers have sacrificed, they have trimmed, and they have automated, investing nearly $60 billion in the process. In return, they have been forced to compete on a playing field that is tilted--tilted--by the weight of the unfair and illegal trade practices of foreign competitors. Last year, a record 41\1/2\ million tons of cheap and illegally dumped steel flooded the U.S. market. Piles of this foreign-made, below-cost steel amassed at our ports. It drove U.S. producers to drop prices, to impose layoffs, to shut down furnaces, and to slow down production. Those cold mounds of steel represented an 83-percent increase in the amount of steel imported into this country--83 percent over the 23 million tons, on average, imported in each of the previous 8 years. Contrary to some reports, this Congress was notified of signs of a potential flood of both legal and illegal steel imports in January 1998. I, in conjunction with the Senate steel caucus leadership, have worked during this year and a half to lay a foundation that would provide meaningful help to the U.S. steel industry. The chairman of that steel caucus is Senator Specter, and the ranking member, or vice chairman, is my colleague from West Virginia, Senator Jay Rockefeller. I have joined the Senate steel caucus in writing numerous letters to the administration and in holding hearings and discussions to provide testimony about the impact of the crisis. I commend Mr. Specter and my colleague, Mr. Rockefeller, on the work that they have done. Although prices for steel have been dropping below domestic manufacturers' costs to produce due to the flood of imports, the U.S. market still offers an outlet for surpluses generated by very sharply depressed demand in Asia and elsewhere. A poor market is better than no market, so rather than idle their own furnaces and mills, foreign exporters are flooding the U.S. market. The United States was the principal destination in 1998 for Japanese-finished steel mill exports that were diverted from the depressed Asian market--to the tune of 4.2 million tons of the 4.7 million tons that Japan had exported to Asia just 1 year earlier. In 1996, Japan exported just 18,190 net tons of hot-rolled sheet steel to the United States each month, on average, a modest increase over 1995. But, in 1997, that figure of 18,000 net tons rose to 43,095 net tons each month, on average. From January through September 1998, that average monthly figure had skyrocketed to 192,812 net tons. Over the same period, however, the value of each ton of Japanese hot-rolled sheet steel fell, from $460 a ton in 1995, to $409 in 1996, to $367 in 1997, to $295 a ton in 1998. At the same time, Japan's domestic market remains virtually closed to foreign steel, allowing Japanese steel mills to command unusually high prices at home. A similar story can be told in the case of Russian hot-rolled sheet steel. In 1995, the average monthly import volume was 46,661 tons. In 1996, that figure had climbed to 67,587 tons per month. In 1997, it was 165,268 tons per month, and from January through September 1998, the average monthly import volume of Russian hot-rolled sheet and plate-in- coil steel was 286,311 tons. At the same time, the price per ton fell from $316 in 1995 to just $240 in 1998. That is a lot of cheap steel to absorb, and that is just one particular type of steel product. Our government's response to this threat was to handle cheating-- cheating--foreign competitors with kid gloves due to concerns that the economies of those foreign nations have been in distress. Now, who pays our way here? Who pays the fare for our trip from Sophia, WV, to Washington, DC? Who pays the fare from Arkansas to Washington, DC? Who pays the fare from Kansas, for those who represent Kansas in the Congress, to Washington, DC? Not those foreign competitors, I can assure you, as far as I am concerned. They don't pay our way. They don't pay our fare. They don't pay us. We are not on their payroll. The people of West Virginia send me here, and the road that leads to Washington leads back home. I am going to be first, last, and always interested in the people of our own Nation who look to us for leadership, look to us to help them with their problems--not the foreign competitors. The argument has been made that caution must be exercised so as not to push these teetering economies over the edge. I understand concerns about the intertwined economies of an increasingly global marketplace, but my heart will not bleed for cheaters. My heart aches for those American men and women who have worked and sacrificed and followed the rules, only to have their futures and the futures of their families, their communities, and their steel industry thrown into question. The illegal dumping of steel on American shores is real. It is not imaginary. It is not something we are just dreaming about. It is not something we are seeing visions about. It is real. The crisis does exist. Our domestic steel industry has been seeking remedy through antidumping and countervailing trade cases. The Commerce Department has ruled on or is investigating cases against Japan, Russia, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, India, and Indonesia. On June 11, just last Friday, the International Trade Commission, by a 6-0 ruling, found that imports of dumped hot rolled steel from Japan are ``materially injuring or threatening material injury'' to the U.S. steel industry. Based on this determination, duties will be retroactively applied to imports from Japan that enter the United States after February, 19, 1999, but the international trade system established to help domestic manufacturers recover from trade-induced damage has thus far failed our steelmakers. The process is too painfully slow. When I was a boy I read a book, ``The Slow Train Through Arkansas.'' We are talking about a slow process here, and it has failed our steelmakers. The process is too painfully slow to avert long-term financial disaster for many U.S. steel mills. One of the opponents to this bill said the other day: Well we have a process here. Yes, we have a process. I am saying it is too painfully slow to avert long-term financial disaster for many U.S. steel mills. That is why we have come to the floor with this bill, this provision that will help in the short-term. Damage must be done before a case can even be filed. Now, that is the process; damage must be done before a case can even be filed, and the investigation and the adjudication takes months. Even if our steel companies succeed in getting our trade laws to support them by levying tariffs on unfair competitors or otherwise reducing their attempts at undercutting our domestic market, these steel mills will not receive any of those tariffs to make up for their losses or to help out their workers. The damage has been done. The damage has been done. At best, they will get an eventual reduction of illegal imports that will allow them to compete in their own country, at least until some other nation decides to flood our markets. It is not fair. It is not right. It is not right for our steel industry. It is not right for our steelworkers. It is not fair to our steelworkers. Nor will communities that are hard hit by layoffs and threats of layoffs receive any direct compensation from the tariffs that are paid by illegal dumping. The damage has been done. The little community of Weirton has been hard hit. The Weirton Steel Company employed 14,000 men and women a few years ago; today, it is down under 5,000. The Weirton Steel Company is the lifeblood of Weirton, WV. Without it, the community would be dead, dead, dead! There are other communities. But these communities, as I say, that are hard hit by layoffs--and there have been additional layoffs at Weirton; 800 steelworkers laid off since last November because of this illegal dumping of below-cost steel into American ports by those foreign countries that wave their nose at the trade laws. Communities hard hit by layoffs and threats of layoffs will not receive any direct compensation from the tariffs paid by illegal dumpers. Now, that is the process. They say, well, let the process work. The recent years of uncertainty that deterred people from buying houses, buying cars, buying anything they might have to finance longer than their job might last, no one can make up for those kinds of losses that ripple through a community, affecting jobs, affecting lives that are directly linked to a steel mill paycheck. This crisis may not be abating, as some would have us believe. Foreign steel markets are not yet rebounding to their previous levels, and oversupply remains very high. Nearly all of the recent import declines are due to antidumping cases against just three countries. Historically, such cases have eventually caused increased imports from other exporters and for other steel products. We have seen that in this instance, as well. When the Commerce Department investigates import surges of a particular type of steel from a single source, that exporter temporarily cleans up his act. You see, he gets religion fast. He cleans up his act with regard to that particular type of steel. But he makes up for it. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing in that case. While he cleans up that act, he makes up for it by flooding the U.S. market with a different steel product that is not under investigation, or another nation steps in to fill the opening provided by tariffs placed on a foreign competitor. So no sooner is one dog leashed than another dog is on the attack. For many months, manufacturers and steelworkers lobbied and protested and cried: ``Help me, Cassius, or I sink!'' They protested and tried every conceivable approach to draw the U.S. Government's attention to their plight, and their pleas were met by dawdling and disbelief. We cannot afford to continue hemming and hawing, as the fires die down in the blast furnaces at Weirton, WV, or in Illinois or Indiana or Missouri or Alabama or Pennsylvania or Ohio. This is an emergency. That is why it was put into an emergency appropriations bill. It requires urgent action. We have responded to emergencies in other industries and in other nations; why can we not respond to a critical situation in our own steel industry? Do you remember the story of Joseph and Mary, who went from Nazareth up to Judea to pay their taxes? They went to Bethlehem. Their baby was born and wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Why was it laid in a manger? Because there was no room at the inn. There was no room for the baby at the inn. It had to be laid in a manger because there was no room for Joseph and Mary and the baby at the inn. No room at the inn. So to the steelworkers, there is no room for the steelworkers at the inn, no room at the inn. This crisis cannot be merely dismissed as a West Virginia matter, as some sought to do earlier. I know the word went around, well, this is just to help workers in West Virginia; this is just to help Senator Byrd from West Virginia. That is not the case. That is not the case. So this crisis cannot merely be dismissed as a West Virginia matter. This is a national matter. It affects Kentucky. It affects Virginia. When one industry hurts in this country, the whole country hurts. When steelworkers are thrown out of jobs, there is a great ripple effect. When jobs are lost in Indiana and Illinois and West Virginia, it hurts in Kentucky. It hurts in Virginia. This is a national matter involving an industry that stretches across the Nation. When you see those television pictures of the tanks in the Balkans, those tanks are not made of pasteboard. They are not made of nylon. They are not made of plastic. They are made of steel. I know what it is to weld that steel, having welded in the shipyards in World War II. It was this mighty country with its steel mills and its experienced steelworkers and its efficient steel companies that made the ships to carry the manpower and the weaponry to Europe in World War I and in World War II. Let another war come. We will send tanks of pasteboard? The ill effects that have been visited upon this industry loom in Utah, Illinois, Arkansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama, California, and other States. It touches the lives of all Americans. Just read the newspapers and the trade publications from around the Nation. Bankruptcy looms for Gadsden, AL, based Gulf States Steel. Last month, Laclede Steel shut down its Alton, IL, pipe and tube plant, putting 200 employees out of work because of high levels of imports. In April, FirstMiss, a Pennsylvania steel producer of high-grade specialty steel, announced plans to shut down, putting 140 people out of work. These are Americans. These are people of flesh and blood, just as you and I are flesh and blood. Geneva Steel Company of Vineyard, UT, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February, citing the surge in steel imports as the cause of its financial distress. Geneva Steel employs roughly 2,400 workers in Utah making hot-rolled and plate steel. In December 1998, Geneva officials had conceded that they would be unable to make January's interest payments on senior notes. Bethlehem Steel officials announced in January that the steel import crisis caused them to decide to close two plants--in Washington, PA, and Massillon, OH--and eliminate a total of 540 jobs. Not surprisingly, no buyer could be found for the Massillon mill, given the poor market prospects. In November 1998, Bethlehem Steel temporarily shut down facilities in Burns Harbor, IN, and Steelton, PA; it cut back shifts at facilities in Sparrows Point, PA, and idled production lines in Coatsville, PA, that employed 1,000 people, all because of unfair, illegal competition from imported steel, and unfair competition from foreign countries. The Scriptures say that charity begins at home. We don't want charity. We simply want a fair, level field so the American steelworkers, whose efficiency is as great or greater than that of any other workers in the world, can make their way, can earn by the sweat of their brow their daily bread. I have been in the Senate 41 years. I have never turned my back on any other State or any category of people in this country who are hard up and who are out of work and who need help in order to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. Whether it is in my State or not, if it is somewhere else in America that an industry, that the farmers need help, that the farmers need loans, that the homebuilders need loans, I am here to help, always have been. I do not say it does not help my people. I do not say that. The chain is as strong as its weakest link. I say help them if it is on the west coast, if it is on the east coast, if it is in the North or the South--wherever. If it is America, count me in. In November, LTV officials announced that the company would permanently close some operations at their Cleveland Works facility, eliminating 320 jobs, because, in part, of dumped imports. The previous month, LTV had temporarily laid off an additional 320 workers on a different production line. U.S. Steel also cut back operations in November, laying off several hundred of the 850 workers at the Fairless, Pennsylvania, plant. These are not West Virginia plants, but if it hurts Pennsylvania; it hurts me; it hurts West Virginia. National Steel announced the idling a blast furnace producing 1.1 million tons of iron at its Great Lakes Division last October, reducing the steelmaking capacity there by 25 to 30 percent. Last September, California Steel Industries reported that it had lost 15 to 20 percent of its sales volume, and had reduced production operations proportionally. Also last September, Illinois-based Acme Metals, Incorporated, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, halting production at a new, $370 million slab caster designed to take advantage of its high-quality blast furnace operations while linking it to low-cost, mini-mill style casting and rolling equipment. So much for modernizing to remain competitive! We have done it. The steel industry has done it. They have modernized the steel mills. The lesson steel makers have learned is that their investment decisions to remain modern and efficient can be undercut at any time by foreign producers driven by their own interests, or subsidized by their own governments, to increase their market share by driving under the domestic competition. I could go on, but I think I have made my point. These American steel companies are suffering not only from the kind of depressed export market that has led the administration and this Congress to provide emergency relief to our Nation's farmers, but also from unfair, below- cost imports that are squeezing our steel industry out of our domestic market. Why is it this Congress can so readily support funding for direct low-cost loans to farmers--and I am for that--in order to help them survive the tough times, but some Members balk at providing loan guarantees to allow an equally critical industry--one that is necessary to maintain a robust defense as well as a robust economy--to obtain market rate loans to restructure debt and tough out a battle against depressed markets and unfair competition? I confess that I simply do not understand this logic. Help the farmers. We have heard that cry from the steeple tops, and my vote has been there. I do not have large farms in West Virginia, but when the call comes to help the farmers, my vote has been there. I have never opposed help for all the farmers. I have been on the Appropriations Committee 41 years, Mr. President. You do not find me opposing aid to farmers just because West Virginia does not have big farms. Why provide loans and grants for foreign governments? What is the logic in the U.S. Government providing loans, direct loans in many instances, guaranteed loans and grants to people in foreign lands, foreign governments? Why help them, when there is no room at the inn for American steelworkers? Think of it. I would be ashamed--ashamed--to deny our own people when we do not deny foreign governments. I have a list of the direct loans. I have a list of the guaranteed loans. I have a list of the outstanding loans to foreign governments. And then a Senator will stand in this Chamber and vote against guaranteed loans for an American industry, the steel industry, steelworkers, steel families. I know some Senators do not like to hear it, but listen to me. If you do not hear me, you will hear from them, the people for whom there is no room at the inn. Opponents of this loan guarantee program would have us believe that this is an excessively costly solution to a nonexistent problem. It is neither. The loan guarantee program outlined in this bill would provide qualified steel producers access to loans through the private market that are guaranteed by the federal government in the same way that the federal government now guarantees loans made to homebuilders, farmers, even foreign governments. These guarantees are needed because banks, seeing the same flood of low-priced imported steel, are not willing to make loans or restructure existing debt when their collateral--the steel made and sold by the borrowers--is so devalued. both the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget, acting under the credit reform provisions of the Budget Enforcement Act, have calculated the budget authority estimates of this program at only $140 million, reflective of the fairly low risk of default and the value of the potential collateral to be offered. This cost, as has been stated time and again, is fully offset. The steel loan guarantee program will be established and administered by a distinguished board of directors--namely, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Commerce, who will serve as chairman of the board. This board will be given flexibility to determine the percentage of the federal guarantee, the appropriate collateral, as well as the loan amounts and interest rates. This board will disburse loans of not less than $25 million, subject to a waiver, and not more than $250 million to any one company, and the total amount of all guarantees will not exceed $1 billion. As the loans are paid off, funds will become available for additional lending. All loans, however, must be repaid within 6 years, with interest. This loan guarantee program is GATT-legal. We are still playing fair. We are not subsidizing our steel industry. We are not undermining someone else's domestic steel industry by dumping steel at below production cots. This program would operate within the international trade rules. This emergency loan guarantee program is an important tool to help these companies deal with the immediate effects of this crisis as they pursue their legal cases and as other legislative remedies are being considered. By itself, this program will not solve this crisis, but it is needed to ensure that these companies can make it through some very tough times and keep their employees--our fellow citizens--working. Which of you, the Scriptures say, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Which of you, being a father, if your son asks for fish, will give him a serpent? Which of you, if your son asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? When I say to Senators, these steelworkers are our fellow Americans, our fellow citizens, they are asking for the opportunity to earn their daily bread, in the sweat of their brow, are we going to give them a stone? So, what do we have to lose here by ensuring that funding is available for a crisis that our own Department of Commerce verifies is upon us? If the money is not needed, not one red cent will be dispersed from the Treasury. But if we do not act, and steel companies start to go under, you can bet that we will not be able to act quickly enough to save some of those companies, some of those jobs, and some of those steel towns that will be pulled under by the rip current of our failure to respond. It cost us at most $140 million to act decisively now to avert a crisis that is within our shores. Our failure to act will surely cost us much more as a nation. I speak not only of the tangible costs of inaction--in increased unemployment, cuts in services, and bank losses, in addition to increased spending for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, housing assistance, child care assistance, community adjustment assistance, worker adjustment assistance, and so forth, but also of the intangible costs. What does it mean if we let our steel industry fail? What does it mean if we allow it to be sliced away mill by mill by mill until only the biggest survive? What does it mean for our future to have another critical defense component delivered from a ship arriving from distant shores? Ships from distant shores will bring the steel. Can our space launch capacity be held hostage to specialty materials and components produced overseas? Can a new stealth bomber still be produced without a foreign partner? What does it mean when we let trade theory or consideration for foreign trading partners allow us to tie our own hands and let foreign competitors unfairly or illegally pull the rug out from under American citizens? Should American steelworkers and their families go on unemployment or even welfare in order to allow foreign steelworkers to retain their jobs? I do not think so. I think our people should come first, as far as I am concerned. This country has been very charitable to the rest of the world. This Nation has helped other nations when disasters came upon them. This Nation has helped other nations to rebuild after destructive wars. But we should not ask this Nation to give up its industries and ship those industries overseas. We should not ask our steelworkers to give up their jobs in order that steelworkers somewhere else, thousands of miles away, across the deep waters, may have their jobs. The people who send us here place a trust in us. Those who send us here can bring us back home. They ought to bring us home if we do not listen to their pleas. They place a trust in us that we will stand for issues important to them, their lives, and their livelihood. I cannot, in good conscience, turn my back on America's steelworkers, just as I cannot turn my back on the oil and gas workers. And I cannot turn my back on the farmers in this country. But I hope that each of you will not turn your back on our steelworkers. The time will come when you may come to my door, saying: I need your help. I may have that rollcall on how you voted when the steelworkers needed your help, when their families needed your help in order that they might have bread to eat, clothes to wear, and the other necessities of life. Let's not forget we have to help one another. The questions for every Member of Congress are these: do we care if we have a domestic steel industry? Does it matter? Or should we throw in the towel and allow foreign competitors to chip away at our steel industry until we are forced to depend on foreign steelmakers for our every steel need in the next century? Let us not dither. Let us not believe there is no problem here. Let us not play politics. Let's leave philosophy to Socrates and to Plato and the other great philosophers. Let's tend to things closer to home. Let us act. I urge the adoption of this legislation. My colleague, my friend, Pete Domenici, who is on the floor at the moment, who represents the great State of New Mexico, will speak for oil and gas. I fully support him--fully support him. What affects his oil and gas industries affects me and my people, affects West Virginia. Mr. President, I yield the floor. Mr. GRAMM addressed the Chair.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator. He is always a gentleman.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, will the distinguished Senator yield without--well, I guess the Record will have to show an interruption.

Mr. BYRD. Yes. I yield the floor, but may I say before yielding that the bill that is before the Senate is here through orderly procedures, it having been reported from the Senate Appropriations Committee in due course, and that is where we are now. I thank the distinguished Senator.

Mr. BYRD. It did.

Mr. BYRD. No. No.

Mr. BYRD. No. No.