The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution April 30 pledging to use American-made and Oregon-made goods and services when spending grant dollars it receives under the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Five other government agencies in Oregon and a couple in Southwest Washington have passed similar resolutions. They include Albany City Council, Sweet Home City Council, Carlton City Council, Yamhill County Board of Commissioners, and Yamhill School District in Oregon; the Clark County Board of Commissioners, Kelso City Council and the Regional Transportation Council in Southwest Washington.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a $787 billion economic stimulus package enacted by Congress in February to boost the U.S. economy in the wake of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The “Make Our Future Work” resolution is the brainchild of the United Steelworkers Union, which is lobbying support from more than 1,000 governmental bodies nationwide. To date, 400 resolutions have been passed.

“This can help stop job losses by purchasing Oregon goods and services first,” said Judy O’Connor, executive secretary-treasurer of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, who testified in favor of the resolution along with Gaylan Prescott, a Steelworkers international union representative from the 12th District, and Bob Tackett, a Workforce Investment Act labor liaison for the Oregon AFL-CIO.

Prescott said the intent of the resolution is to get local and state governments and leaders to keep the taxpayer-provided stimulus dollars in America to create jobs locally.

He told Multnomah County commissioners that stimulus money could help put more than 100 unemployed Steelworkers at Cascade Rolling Mills back to work making construction rebar. “This kind of resolution speaks directly to them,” he said.

Prescott said steelmaking capacity in the U.S. is at only 50 percent, while China is at 100 percent capacity.

County commissioners voted unanimously in support of the resolution.

“I don’t think you’ll get any arguments here,” said Chair Ted Wheeler. “It’s a longstanding philosophy of this board to buy local and to encourage others to buy local.”

Wheeler said a vast majority, “if not all” of the grant money that comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be spent locally.

Commissioner Deborah Kafoury advised the union officials to take the resolution to the Oregon Legislature, where lawmakers are debating a transportation funding package.

Prescott told the Labor Press after the hearing that the deadline to file bills in the Oregon Legislature had passed and that efforts to attach the resolution to another bill were unsuccessful.

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