Fence to protect America turns out to be Made in China
Here's a story that seems a little strange on the surface. The Congressional Steel Caucus, made up of members from steel-making districts, is charging that the new fence going up to protect the United States' southern border from illegal foreigners is being constructed with foreign-made steel.
Chinese steel, to be exact.
"It's outrageous, offensive and unacceptable," Pennsylvania Rep. Jason Altmire tells NBC's Mike Viqueira.
The Congress members say they were tipped off to the foreign-made steel by outraged American union workers and have confirmed with the Department of Homeland Security that specific Buy American provisions written into the law authorizing the fence were waived by the department.
San Diego Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, who's also running for the GOP presidential nomination and is a frequent critic of Chinese trade policies toward American goods, noted that of the 854 miles of barriers that Congress authorized last year, only 70 miles of single fencing and five miles of double-fencing have gone up.
--Andrew Malcolm
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
Subscribe to this Blog
Well, who better to build a "Great Wall of America" than the Chinese?
Posted by: Michael | October 22, 2007 at 08:45 AM