If you did not see President Trump’s press conference yesterday, you might want to watch. It was quite the spectacle. His statements on “Buy America” issues may not have been the highlight of the event, but they raise some interesting questions. Here’s what he said:
We have also taken steps to begin construction of the Keystone Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipelines. Thousands and thousands of jobs, and put new buy American measures in place to require American steel for American pipelines. In other words, they build a pipeline in this country, and we use the powers of government to make that pipeline happen, we want them to use American steel. And they are willing to do that, but nobody ever asked before I came along. Even this order was drawn and they didn’t say that.
… And I’m reading the order, I’m saying, why aren’t we using American steel? And they said, that’s a good idea, we put it in.
I mentioned this issue on this blog a couple weeks ago. As I pointed out then, Trump is saying that he put measures in place to require pipeline companies to use American steel, but the Presidential memo he signed does not, in fact, do this. Instead, it instructs the Secretary of Commerce, as part of an inter-agency consultation, to “develop a plan” under which pipelines “use materials and equipment produced in the United States, to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law.”
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