According to national survey over 1,000 American adults by American Iron & Steel Institute, 86% of those polled favor Congressional requirements that all federally funded transportation and infrastructure projects from the 2009 stimulus bill emphasize using American made iron and steel before seeking a foreign competitor.
Strong support for the Buy America provision indicates the public’s intuitive understanding that spending to build and repair roads, bridges, rail, schools and waterways will produce a new wave of job creation. The Department of Transportation, in fact, reported in April 2008 that every USD 1 billion invested in federal highways supports nearly 35,000 American jobs.
Mr Thomas J Gibson president & CEO of AISI said that "Economists are emphasizing that the best way to create jobs and return our economy to vitality is to spend federal money on roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects, which would help to put people both in manufacturing and construction directly back to work. This survey shows that Americans support a common sense approach to rebuilding the economy. Americans want to see American taxpayer funds supporting a stimulus package that will generate American jobs using high quality, American made products. In fact, America’s steel industry, which is fundamental to our national and economic security, has high-quality, competitive priced, American made steel for any shovel-ready projects made by the hardest working, most skilled steelworkers in the world."
The survey was fielded from January 22nd 2009 to January 25th 2009 among 1,006 adults 18 years of age or older and is representative of the US population. The survey has a margin of sampling error of 3.1 percentage points.