Some lawmakers said thousands of Ohio steel jobs and millions of dollars are at stake in a battle over Chinese trade practices.
Gov. Ted Strickland traveled to Washington D.C. with other Ohio lawmakers to speak to the International Trade Commission on Tuesday.
They said China is underpricing and undercutting the U.S. steel industry, specifically on steel used to make pipes that drill for oil.
"When you look all up and down the Ohio River, the kinds of jobs we've lost, the good-paying industrial jobs, especially the steel jobs -- and a large part of that is because past administrations have not enforced trade law," said Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat.
Over the past several years, Chinese tubular pipe imports have more than tripled, flooding the U.S. market and resulting in lower profits and fewer jobs, the lawmakers said