Are Congress and the administration sufficiently concemed about the continuing problems of the domestic steel ind-ustry and the task of enforcing fair trade laws which affect it? Currently. according to Rep. Doug Walgren, DPar, 116,000 steelworkers are unemployed nationwide, with 91,000 on indefinite layoff and 25,000 working less than a full work week. Locally 1,500 men and women are laid off at U.S. with 3,400 employees still working. And, with national unemployment nearing 9 percent, the jobless rate in the specialty steel industry is hovering at 25 percent, Walgren said in a Congressional Record statement. Steel is vital in the U.S.’ industrial and defense base, but the industry has had sustained economic troubles and the current woes and heavy unemployment can be attributed only partly to the recession. “Foreign steel producers have been saturating our markets with steel which they sell at prices lower than domestic prices because much of these imports are government – subsidized claimed Walgren. “At present the penetration rate of foreign steel in the U.S. exceeds 25 percent, an all-time high. This means one out of four tons of steel consumed in America currently is produced in foreign mills.” Dave Bigler, a Utah U.S. Steel spokesman, says for the first quarter of this year it has been nearly 50 percent. The charge has been made intermittenly for years. It’s an old story. The domestic industry has claimed for years that trade laws are being violated by foreign producers who allegedly sell in this country at prices below cost because of government subsidies. With our domestic steel plants now operating at less than 50 percent capacity, its’s time to get to the bottom of the issue forthwith. Walgren and 93 House colleagues have cosponsored legislation (House Concurrent Resolution 343) designed to crack down on “blatant violations of fair trade laws.” The resolution calls for expediting 92 countervailing and antidumping suits filed by various steel companies against foreign steel-producing nations. It also expresses the intent of Congress to strengthen existing trade laws “if necessary to rescue our declining steel industry.” The proposed legislation should get the urgent attention of the House Steel Caucus, Congress in general, and the Administration.