The American Iron & Steel Institute commended Congressman Mr Nick Rahall for introducing The Invest in American Jobs Act of 2011, a common sense bill designed to strengthen existing Buy America requirements for investments in transportation and infrastructure to ensure that the steel and iron used in these projects is produced in the United States.

Mr Thomas J Gibson president & CEO of AISI said that "This bill would prevent the travesty that occurred when the multi billion dollar San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge project was awarded by the California Department of Transportation to a Chinese steel fabricator. By segmenting the project, the State of California managed to evade the application of existing Buy America requirements, which require that all steel and iron used to construct federally funded highway projects be produced in the United States."

He added that "Mr Rahall's bill ensures that highway and bridge projects cannot be segmented to evade Buy America requirements. It also imposes greater transparency in the Buy America waiver process by requiring federal agencies to justify any proposed waiver of the Buy America requirements and ensuring that the American public has notice and an opportunity to comment on any proposed waiver prior to it taking effect."

Mr Gibson said that with the real US unemployment rate at 16%, outsourcing high value jobs for large scale US infrastructure projects defies common sense and hurts America's economic recovery. He added that "Congressman Mr Rahall is to be commended for his leadership in introducing this important legislation. We look forward to working with the Ranking Member as this bill progresses and building bipartisan support for passage of these important reforms."