Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and the entire U.S. steel industry, is fighting for its life. We as a nation are at a crossroads: we can decide that maintaining a U.S. steel industry is vital to our national interests, or we can watch it wither and die. The decision rests with President Bush, and we will know what it is by February.

    The U.S. steel industry has been in crisis since 1998, when a flood of imports were dumped on our market, making it impossible for U.S. manufacturers to compete with subsidized foreign steelmakers. Since 1998, 26 U.S. steel companies – including Beth Steel – have filed for bankruptcy. In December, Bethlehem Steel announced it was in merger talks with U.S. Steel Corp. Recently, the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that the U.S. steel industry had been seriously "injured" by the flood of foreign imports and recommended a range of tariffs and quotas on steel imports. The ITC's recommendations have been forwarded to the President, but are not binding. The President is expected to announce his decision in February.

    As a member of the Steel Caucus and a proponent of several bipartisan measures to revitalize the U.S. steel industry, I have urged President Bush to act quickly to go beyond the ITC's recommendations and impose a significant enough penalty to ensure the continued viability of the U.S. steel industry. It is within the President's authority to take such action.

    As we await the President's decision, the issue of "legacy costs" for the steel industry has only served to exacerbate the industry's financial crisis. Legacy costs – pension and health care costs for retired workers – is a major stumbling block to a merger of Bethlehem Steel and U.S. Steel.

    The burden of legacy costs is a result of governmental policies of the 1980s and early 1990s. At that time, as part of our trade policy, the United States signed Voluntary Restraint Agreements (VRAs), reducing the amount of steel produced. The end result was a decrease in U.S. capacity, substantially increasing in the number of retired steelworkers whose pension and health care costs had to be picked up by the U.S. steel industry.

    These legacy costs have seriously saddled the steel industry with heavy debt. Currently, Bethlehem Steel annually pays approximately $600 million for pensions and $200 million for health care and life insurance for its 75,000 retirees. As a percentage of the cost of sales, total retiree benefits is approximately 20%. It is important that the retirees are protected, but at the same time the Administration should use the revenues gained from the penalties imposed on steel imports to help the U.S. steel companies defray these legacy costs.

    There is no question that the very survival of the U.S. steel industry is in question. I urge the President to act decisively to impose significant enough tariffs to allow the U.S. steel industry to compete with foreign manufacturers.

    The U.S. steel industry is vital to our national interests. As the leading world power, it would not be wise to lose our steel producing ability and become dependent on foreign manufacturers. That would be a shortsighted and reckless policy, indeed.