Senate Democrats are assailing Republicans for removing a “Buy America” provision from the waterways bill that they say President-elect Trump supports but House GOP have worked to eliminate.
“We’re getting a disconnect here between a victory lap” Trump took recently after saving 1,000 Carrier jobs and a decision by House Republicans to jettison a “Buy America” provision from the water infrastructure bill originally expected to pass the House and Senate by the end of the week, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told reporters Tuesday.
Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., scolded Republicans for seeming to undermine Trump’s two main promises on the country’s infrastructure rebuilding to “buy American, hire American.”
Schumer was referring to a statement that Trump made Thursday night during his “Thank You Tour” in Cincinnati.
“They turned right around and ripped a provision out of the water resources bill” that requires any infrastructure water projects to use American-made steel, he said.
“That would case the loss of many more jobs than Republican saved in Indiana,” Schumer said.
Schumer and Durbin are referring to language in the Senate-passed version of the Water Resources Development Act that would require the use of American iron and steel products in projects using money from the government’s drinking Water State Revolving fund. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., reportedly pushed to strip the provision from the bill.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., also blamed Ryan and House Republicans for the move, arguing that it showed that they are “embracing the status quo in Washington.”
“This is a failure by House leadership to make a solid commitment to American manufacturers and workers,” she said Tuesday. “American workers should build our infrastructure with American products and taxpayers’ money should not be spent on Chinese or Russian iron and steel. It’s disappointing that President-elect Trump is sitting silent in Trump Tower.”
Baldwin, who authored the “Buy America” provision, has called on Trump to take a stand on an effort to pull the language from the water resources bill that passed the Senate in September.
