AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Ahead of next year's midterm elections, Vice President JD Vance has been making stops in key congressional districts to promote Republicans' recently passed megabill. That included a visit to Wisconsin, where he told steelworkers better times are ahead. Yet, as Chuck Quirmbach reports from La Crosse, Wisconsin, that's a political promise many in this area have heard before.
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JD VANCE: We love you all. Thank you all, Wisconsin. It's great to be here. We have a great-looking crowd here. Thank you all.
CHUCK QUIRMBACH, BYLINE: Late last month, Vice President Vance greeted workers at Mid-City Steel, a fabrication company in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The city is also part of a competitive congressional race for a seat currently held by GOP Representative Derrick Van Orden. Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, continued with his long-standing efforts to show he can relate to blue-collar employees by speaking about his grandfather's history in the steel industry.
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VANCE: Let me take it back a little bit to where I grew up, in Middletown, Ohio, southwestern Ohio, where my papaw - and the reason I love the welders in particular is my papaw, for 42 years, was a union welder at a place called Armco Steel.
QUIRMBACH: There's still a steel mill in Middletown, but many other U.S. plants have shut down in recent decades. Vance blames what he calls a generation of failed politicians and stupid decisions.
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VANCE: Well, now we have a different president with a different attitude.
QUIRMBACH: He says a tax break for new equipment and other incentives in the recently passed GOP megabill will help the steel industry and other U.S. manufacturers. Alex Bishop (ph), a welder at Mid-City Steel who attended Vance's event, says he generally supports him.
ALEX BISHOP: I voted for him and Trump. And they're doing some things that I don't agree with, but that's with every politician ever. But majority-wise, yeah, I think they're headed the right direction.
QUIRMBACH: Bishop calls the GOP-led legislation a net positive, especially when it comes to reducing taxes on overtime pay.
BISHOP: That's the big bonus on the end of my check, being I work about anywhere from 50 to 60 hours a week. That untaxed overtime at the end of the year is going to be real nice.
QUIRMBACH: Ben Morrall, president of Voortman USA, an Illinois-based supplier to Mid-City Steel, also listened to the vice president. Morrall says certain parts of the GOP's bill will help his company expand and hire more people. But Morrall says for now, the gains are partly at risk due to another big development affecting the steel industry - President Trump's expanded tariffs on imported steel.
BEN MORRALL: So tariffs, for us in particular and steel - yeah, it's - it has driven up costs. Currently, we are importing the majority of our equipment and all the components with that. Having the investment in the United States - yeah, it has been a struggle so far this year.
QUIRMBACH: Even with the added short-term costs, Morrall expressed optimism that increased tariffs could benefit the country in the long term.
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QUIRMBACH: Three hours away from La Crosse in Milwaukee, United Steelworkers members gather for an annual Laborfest parade.
JAKE COLE: There has been disappointment before.
QUIRMBACH: One participant, Jake Cole, a union staff rep, says tariffs are just one of the uncertainties. He says his tentativeness about the Big, Beautiful Bill stems from failed past promises.
COLE: Sometimes, when things sound too good to be true, they are met with strict criticism. The history of promises, the scope of the promises in general, just - we are always skeptical about, at what cost will these promises come?
QUIRMBACH: Cole's union endorsed Trump's Democratic challenger, Kamala Harris, last year. Even so, Cole says he and other union members will try to fairly evaluate Trump's actions. Yet he says he's concerned about what he sees as Trump's attacks on the National Labor Relations Board, which is meant to investigate alleged unfair labor practices.
COLE: Frankly, they're dismantled. You know, it's almost like they're non-existent right now.
QUIRMBACH: It may take more visits by Vice President Vance to steel industry plants to overcome the doubts before the midterm elections.
For NPR News, I'm Chuck Quirmbach in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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