AAM joins the United Steelworkers to lobby for a domestic preference rule in Kentucky’s public buildings and public works projects.
Earlier this month, AAM Advocacy Coordinator Lou Delatore and I spent some time in Kentucky with the members and leadership of United Steelworkers District 8. We participated in their 2026 Rapid Response Conference in Lexington, Kentucky and then their day lobbying legislators at the State Capitol in Frankfort. While the union had several pieces of legislation to address with their elected officials, AAM was there to focus on the 2026 Kentucky Buy American Act (HB 472) filed by Representative Patrick Flannery (R-Olive Hill).
The Kentucky Buy American Act would require state and local contracts for construction or maintenance of public buildings or public works projects – like roads, sewers and streets – to include provisions that any of the iron, steel, aluminum or any of the other manufactured goods used as a primary component be manufactured in the United States. The bill aims to support American workers and manufacturers, allowing waivers only if materials are unavailable or costs increase by more than 10%.
Rep. Flannery carried the bill in the legislature in 2025, while Rep. John Blanton (R-Salyersville) filed a similar bill during the 2024 legislative session. The late Louisville Democratic Rep. Charles Miller first introduced the legislation in 2022.
AAM and United Steelworkers have supported these efforts, and that was the reason Lou and I were in Kentucky. We spent time with members of District 8 who work manufacturing steel, aluminum, paper and many other important products, to brief them on the legislation and answer any questions they may have before they headed to the capitol to meet with more than 35 legislators.
Under Director Larry Ray’s leadership, District 8 and its Rapid Response team take an excellent approach to ensure their members’ voices are heard. Operating on the idea that it’s about policy and not politics, District 8 has trained several of its rank-and-file members as registered lobbyists in the state, assuring that their members are able to hold their elected officials accountable on the issues that affect working people.
Buy America is one of those issues.
AAM and the Steelworkers and have worked to gain support from labor and industry for this year’s effort, as was shown when Rep. Flannery presented the Kentucky Buy American Act to the legislature’s Interim Joint Committee on Economic Development and Workforce Investment in October 2025. He was flanked by metal industry leaders and workers while doing so.
“Really, what I want to do is make sure we can get something across the finish line that makes these products in America again, so we can use these and get people back to work,” Flannery told the committee that day.
Chad Conley, Rapid Response Coordinator for District 8, told that same committee that the bill is “an opportunity to revitalize American manufacturing” by ensuring that public works projects in Kentucky utilize metals made in the U.S. At present, state agencies typically award contracts to the lowest bidder, “allowing foreign producers to undercut U.S. prices and win awards,” he said.
“State preference laws like this one can change that practice to require governments to accept a bid that might be marginally higher than the lowest bid with the knowledge that money spent will be circulated back into the American economy,” Conley added.
Also present at that hearing was Mike Buckentin, CEO of Bowling Green-based nonprofit Metals Innovation Initiative, who told the committee that recent investments have been made in the metals industry, particularly in Kentucky. Nucor Steel opened a steel mill in Brandenburg in 2023, adding jobs to the Meade County community.
“Kentucky is doing great, not just in manufacturing overall, but specifically in metals,” Buckentin said. “We continue to grow, we continue to invest and we’re one of the leaders in the nation right now in metals and in manufacturing.”
The work that AAM and our stakeholders from United Steelworkers District 8 have put in on the Buy America issue assured that the members had a successful day generating bipartisan support in the Kentucky Legislature on HB 472. Now we’ll work together to assure it passes through the necessary committees in the Kentucky House and Senate, and then successful floor votes, to get it on the governor’s desk and signed into law.