February 19, 2026 America’s Industrial Might Requires U.S.-Made Cement

As Americans gear up to celebrate their 250th anniversary, let’s rebuild our nation’s infrastructure with high-quality, homegrown cement.

By Steve Crim

This year, Congress and the White House have a golden opportunity to modernize American infrastructure, expand economic prosperity, and maintain our nation’s global construction and engineering leadership. With the right investments, we can supercharge domestic manufacturing, lead the artificial intelligence race, and construct world-class infrastructure. But we can only achieve these goals if we shore up America’s supply of homegrown building materials, starting right at the foundation with U.S.-made cement.

As a critical component in concrete, the second most consumed material in the world, cement builds our communities from the ground up, including schools, places of worship, homes, businesses, and everything in between. But the need for a steady supply of domestic, high-quality cement has never been greater. In 2025, U.S. cement production declined, while foreign cement comprised over 20 percent of the total share of domestic cement consumption. And the demand keeps growing. Projections show that cement needs will only increase for critical industries, including data centers and airports. 

All the while, the state of our infrastructure continues to fall behind, and recent investments aren’t going far enough. The American Society of Civil Engineers found that U.S. bridges, airports, roads, highways, and schools remain in poor shape. Finding the funding to meet these demands and the creativity to get projects approved will be challenging enough. We don’t need to add to the degree of difficulty by creating uncertainty about our ability to have adequate supplies of high-quality, U.S.-made construction products that are as fundamental as cement.  

To get things on track and build world-class infrastructure, we should bolster American cement manufacturing. In a world where supply chain disruptions are becoming more common, the U.S. must have access to the trusted and high-quality resources we need, when we need them. As history has shown, substandard imported materials can also pose a threat to infrastructure development in the U.S., driving up costs and creating hazards.

Domestic cement production can help reduce wait times and ensure our infrastructure projects stay on schedule. Whether for bridges, highways, hospitals, or military installations, the cement underpinning our nation’s infrastructure is too vital to be sourced from anywhere other than domestic manufacturing facilities. On top of being a strategic resource, American cement also supports jobs and economic growth from coast to coast, with production in 34 states and Puerto Rico. America’s cement and concrete industry supports 577,000 jobs and generates around $159 billion in economic impact.

That’s why we need policymakers at every level of government to get on board with effective actions that will strengthen standards, enhance markets, and drive American growth. It should not be too much to ask for the cement that supports our roads and schools to meet stringent standards, but too often imports lack certification. Mandating import transparency and reliance reports for cement would be a commonsense way to start to address the problem.

Government agencies are also major cement purchasers and should be investing in U.S. manufacturers with “Buy America” requirements for taxpayer projects and domestic procurement preferences. Finally, a necessary step that is not limited to cement manufacturing is the need for government to get out of the way and let infrastructure developers and manufacturers get the approvals they need to build new capacity in a timely fashion. 

In every corner of our country, leaders and officials at the federal, state, and local levels have an opportunity to support an industry that continues to create jobs and grow our economy. As Americans gear up to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, let’s work to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure with high-quality, homegrown cement.

Steve Crim is the president of Common Sense America, which launched a new project, American Foundations, to strengthen the production of trustworthy, high-quality U.S.-made cement.

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