ICYMI – Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) wrote an opinion piece for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on why he believes the U.S. Steel-Nippon partnership will lead to success for Pennsylvania and America.
Last Thursday, I stood in the Oval Office with my House colleagues Mike Kelly and Dan Meuser. President Trump had invited us to discuss the proposed partnership between U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel. As the President weighed his choices, I repeated what I’ve been saying all along to the President’s team, community leaders and anyone who would listen: My top priority is preserving and expanding the steel jobs and investment in the Mon Valley.
The partnership announced by the President the following day puts Pennsylvania, and America, on that path.
President Trump has secured a generational $14 billion investment in the storied Pittsburgh-based company. While his predecessor simply refused to approve the original deal, President Trump and his team went the extra mile and negotiated an even better one that protects more than 11,000 Pennsylvania jobs and promises to create another 14,000. Critically, U.S. Steel will remain headquartered in Pittsburgh, led by a U.S. team, and controlled and governed by a U.S.-majority board approved by the U.S. government.
Building the future
This deal would not have been possible without the labor and business leaders and elected officials who joined forces to make a strong and compelling case. They built a unique coalition focused not just on protecting jobs but also on creating new ones. They demonstrated for all to see the immense potential of the Keystone State.
This is just the beginning. From the energy and AI race to a growing budget for national defense, a whirlwind of new investment in industry and infrastructure is coming to America.
Pennsylvania is uniquely well-positioned to be at the center of it all. We have a highly skilled workforce with construction workers, steamfitters, machinists and countless other trades ready to build the Pennsylvania of the future. We have the abundant energy resources needed to run new data centers, blast furnaces, shipyards and factories. And we have world-class universities and research labs to drive these innovations forward.
But our success depends on how we leverage these assets. The future won’t build itself. The time is right to expand on the coalition that landed the U.S. Steel-Nippon deal and make this milestone the starting point of a Pennsylvania innovation and industrial renaissance.
Three opportunities
Step one will be to win the greenfield steel mill agreed to in the U.S. Steel deal. Nippon Steel has promised to invest an additional $1 billion by 2028 — beyond the $2.4 billion already committed to the Mon Valley — in a new arc furnace. That commitment could grow to $4 billion, but the location is yet to be determined. I want to see it built in Pennsylvania.
To make that dream a reality, western Pennsylvania cannot repeat past mistakes. Four years ago, U.S. Steel abandoned a major investment project in the Mon Valley in part because of a painfully slow permitting process and weak-kneed support from elected officials. I am committed to working with leaders at every level of government to ensure Pennsylvania is as competitive as possible for the new mill.
Data centers present another incredible opportunity for Pennsylvania. As the AI race heats up, investors project over $1 trillion of investment in U.S. data centers in the next five years and another $1 trillion globally.
Pennsylvania should be a data center hub. That’s why I’m hosting a Pittsburgh summit this summer with global leaders in finance, energy and AI to showcase these opportunities and secure commitments to build data centers and energy projects in the Commonwealth. The road to American AI dominance runs through Pennsylvania.
Likewise, I am working with my colleagues in Congress to invest $150 billion in rebuilding America’s military might, especially by ramping up weapons and equipment production across the country to revitalize the defense industrial base. Pennsylvania should rebuild the “arsenal of democracy,” from robotics in Pittsburgh, to the Philadelphia Shipyard, to defense manufacturers in western and northeastern Pennsylvania.
A time for action
These are just three of the countless opportunities to bring more investment and great, well-paying jobs to our Commonwealth. We will not realize these opportunities, however, unless the new pro-growth coalition that helped save U.S. Steel rallies again to revitalize Pennsylvania.
The same day that I met with the President at the White House, I talked to a dozen or so local labor and community leaders from western Pennsylvania. We had steelworkers, steamfitters, and business and political leaders on the call. This was not a traditional Republican coalition, but we all agreed that the most important thing was working together to protect and create jobs in the Keystone State.
Pennsylvania’s future can and must transcend traditional partisan politics. The U.S. Steel-Nippon partnership is a victory for the Commonwealth, but it can also be the starting point for so much more. From steel to energy and AI to defense production, Pennsylvania stands ready for an economic miracle.
It won’t be easy. As President Kennedy said, “we do great things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” A decade from now, we will look back on this moment and say either that we seized this opportunity with leadership and collaboration, or that we squandered it and fell prey to smallness and inaction. I’m betting on greatness and will work with anyone who is committed to such a renaissance for Pennsylvania.
Dave McCormick, a Republican, is a United States senator from Pennsylvania.