Since his last letter to the President in January, five more companies have filed for chapter 11. Over two-thirds of America's largest steel companies have filed for bankruptcy in the last three years. In addition to a comprehensive Section 201 investigation by the ITC, Rockefeller again advocated an Emergency National Steel Summit to educate the American public about the importance of steel to our economic future, and a multilateral agreement with our trading partners to address foreign overcapacity. Our industry and its workers, the families and communities that are affected by this crisis, cannot continue to absorb job losses and plant shutdowns like these and survive. A copy of Senator Rockefeller's letter to President Bush follows.
More major bankruptcies are imminent.
Mr. President, without your immediate call for a Section 201 investigation, I believe we will forever lose basic steelmaking capacity in the United States, directly threatening our national and economic security. Unless there is immediate relief, tens of thousands of jobs will be lost, hundreds of steel communities and millions of Americans will suffer, and our manufacturing economy will be severely damaged. Failure to act now will be deadly. I again urge you to initiate a Section 201 investigation on steel and I renew my call for an Emergency National Steel Summit. Section 201 is provided for under the Trade Act of 1974 and is consistent with our WTO obligations.