I want to thank Chairman Barton for holding this hearing today as there are few issues of greater importance to not only my district but the country as a whole. I also want to thank Secretary Evans for appearing before us today and I hope, Mr. Secretary, that you will be able to take the concerns and sentiments that I suspect will be expressed here back to the Administration and the White House in the hopes that some changes can be made.

And rest assured, change is what we need because our economy is floundering especially when you look at job losses, the lack of new job creation, and the unemployed and underemployed. I represent Pittsburgh and the surrounding metro area in the heart of western Pennsylvania where manufacturing and hard work have been the hallmark of generations.

Based on the amount of visits the President and the Secretary have made to my district since their administration began, it would seem as though they were really committed to the residents of the area I represent. Yet since January of 2001, when President Bush took office, Pennsylvania has lost 154,700 manufacturing jobs. That’s a truly massive number! Additionally, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that there are 287,600 unemployed workers in Pennsylvania which includes 54,400 in the Pittsburgh metro area. This suggests very strongly to me and a great many of my constituents that regardless of their travel schedule, the Bush administration has been bad for the economy and terrible for jobs.

And yet, I’m not sure what the administration plans to do to address these issues. As near as I can figure, the basis of the entire Bush economic agenda is to make their excessive tax cuts permanent and to expand free trade agreements. Well they’ve made a lot of promises about how many jobs would be created by their tax cuts and how many more will occur if all the cuts are made permanent, but like I mentioned 154,700 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Pennsylvania since their tax cutting frenzy began. And as far as calling for more and expanded free trade, it may be free but it certainly doesn’t seem to be fair as it’s leading to more and more outsourcing of our jobs in manufacturing and many other areas and some people in the administration have actually said that is a positive development.

When I consider these troubling issues, I also find myself thinking about steps that have been taken to improve the climate for manufacturing and some of the successes we have had. Immediately the Manufacturing Extension Partnership comes to mind. In Pittsburgh, MEP has been terrifically successful over the years. The Pittsburgh-based MEP-funded center is Catalyst Connection which shares a mission with MEP centers throughout the nation to help small and medium-sized manufacturers adopt new processes and technology to allow them to be more productive and create more jobs. Since Catalyst Connection was begun in 1988, they have helped over 1,000 local manufacturers, and in all of Pennsylvania the MEP helped 164 businesses generate nearly $90 million in sales and keep or create 400 jobs in 2001 alone. Yet, the Bush administration, while in the middle of this massive manufacturing job crisis, has proposed a budget that would slash funding for the MEP to just 33 percent of last years level. That’s an approach that simply doesn’t make any sense and will devastate this highly successful and important program.

Then there’s the steel industry which is also very important to my district and the country. Less then two years ago, this administration took an important step by enacting temporary steel tariffs to address the illegal dumping of surplus steel on our domestic markets. These tariffs were scheduled to remain in place for at least three years to give the steel industry time to consolidate and recover from the unfair beating they had been taking. Well we did make some progress in that regard and there was reason for optimism about this industry that is so vital to our economy and national security. But unfortunately, last December, President Bush buckled under to threats from our European allies and pulled those tariffs away way too soon and long before the initial three year period was over. Right now, the steel industry is still standing thanks at least in part to a temporary bubble in high prices. But that bubble will burst, dumping could resume, and without the industry having had the chance it deserved to fully recover there’s no telling what will happen. You did the right thing by enacting the tariffs but you’ve made a tragic mistake by pulling them away too soon.

So for these reasons and others I find myself wondering just what this Bush administration really has in mind when it considers the status of our manufacturing base. I hear far too many people say that before too long we won’t really make anything in this country anymore and believe me that has serious ramifications, not only for our economy, but for our national security that this Administration purports to be so concerned about. So I’m hoping maybe Secretary Evans can shine some light on just what the Bush agenda is when it comes to creating jobs and restoring a commitment to our manufacturers in this country. As it stands right now, I really have to wonder.