RAISE YOUR VOICE: D.C. Metrorail Cars Must Be American-Made
Friend,
Steel keeps the trains running on time – literally.
The partnership between the steel industry and the rail car industry spans centuries and built America, and today impacts millions of jobs in manufacturing and the supply chain. But here in Washington, D.C., the city’s Metrorail transit system – which receives hundreds of thousands of federal dollars – is trying to use accounting loopholes to sidestep the laws that require that the steel that goes into their rail cars is Made in America.
The federal government’s Buy America rules for transit spending ensure that 70 percent of the cost of parts are Made in America. These rules are especially important now, when the COVID-19 pandemic has forced plant closures and presented tremendous challenges to the economy.
But the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is trying to get around those laws in order to import foreign-made rail cars.
You and I can't let that happen. The jobs of the workers in the steel and other industries should not be put at further risk to enable the D.C. transit agency to buy foreign subway cars, possibly with parts from China and elsewhere.
Please send a message to WMATA and tell them that you want your tax dollars to go to American-made rail cars.
Thanks,
Kevin Dempsey
Interim President and CEO
American Iron and Steel Institute