A pipeline full of reasons why Bush must bend on this Section 421

Nov 18, 2005 | 04:48 AM | Scott Robertson

President Bush once owned the Texas Rangers, a team that met with only a modicum of success during his ownership and one of only five of the 30 Major League Baseball teams never to play in the World Series.

Supporters of Section 421 relief for the U.S. standard pipe industry can only hope his batting average improves starting Dec. 30.

Roger B. Schagrin of the Washington law firm Schagrin Associates said that if relief is not granted to the domestic industry under Section 421, workers will be forced to strike out on their own in search of new jobs, since many of the plants that currently employ them likely will be forced to close, some as soon as the end of the first quarter of 2006.

"It will be a bloodbath for the (standard pipe) industry if relief is not granted," Schagrin said. Others agree.

Thomas A. Danjczek, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, Washington, is urging members of the Senate Steel Caucus to sign on to a letter to President Bush from Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) and Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D., Ill.) asking the President to grant import quota relief under Section 421.....