{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senator-collins-speaks-at-groundbreaking-for-american-steel-and-aluminum-manufacturing-facility-expansion-in-saco", "Senator Collins Speaks at Groundbreaking for American Steel & Aluminum Manufacturing Facility Expansion in Saco", "2026-08-14", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "Senate", "ME", "Susan M. Collins", "C001035", "www.collins.senate.gov", "collins", "https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "Click HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE for individual photos.\n\nSACO, ME \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Susan Collins delivered remarks at a groundbreaking ceremony for American Steel & Aluminum\u2019s (ASA) planned expansion of its manufacturing facility in Saco. Prior to the ceremony, Senator Collins toured the existing facility, spoke with employees, and met with company leadership.\n\n\u201cASA has long been a job-creating engine in southern Maine, and its investment in expanding its Saco facility is welcome news for the city and our state,\u201d said Senator Collins. \u201cThis project reflects the company\u2019s confidence in Maine\u2019s skilled workforce and will support good jobs, strengthen our manufacturing sector and defense industrial base, and contribute to continued economic growth in the region. I congratulate the entire ASA team on reaching this exciting milestone.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis groundbreaking is for a 12,000-square-foot addition. It\u2019s going to bring many new jobs\u2014about 30 new jobs are going to be on board here in the next couple of months. Our cutting capacity will double. [...] It\u2019s a commitment to the Maine workforce, the Maine industrial base, the maritime industrial base. Senator Collins, with your position on Appropriations in Washington\u2014I go down once a year\u2014I will say: You\u2019re one of the only ones that actually comes in and speaks to us. Usually, we\u2019re speaking to one of their underlings. So, we really appreciate that you take this so seriously and really understand the importance,\u201d said Sam Blatchford, CEO of ASA, at the event.\n\n\u201cSenator Collins, you\u2019ve been supporting manufacturing and American Steel and Aluminum for the last 30 years. It\u2019s really made a big difference. We used to be a general line steel service center and really didn\u2019t differentiate ourselves from some of the competition. We\u2019ve become an advanced manufacturing facility here. We\u2019re buying specialized equipment, we\u2019re adding value, we\u2019re contributing to national security. These are great jobs and this is just the start,\u201d said Scott Jones, president and CEO of ASA\u2019s parent company, Nova Steel, at the event.\n\nASA operates facilities in Saco, South Portland, Auburn, and West Bath and provides heavy-plate metal manufacturing and processing services to customers across a range of industries, including Maine\u2019s shipbuilding industry.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-15T05:23:20Z", "2026-08-15T05:24:50Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senator-collins-speaks-at-groundbreaking-for-american-steel-and-aluminum-manufacturing-facility-expansion-in-saco"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.421310007572174, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}