Thanks to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and other congressional leaders for defending print newspapers in the face of tariffs imposed on Canadian newsprint by the Trump administration since January.

In recent years, new tariffs have pushed up the price of imported Canadian pulp paper by 20 to 30 percent — a significant cost increase for the Butler Eagle and hundreds of other small-market local newspapers across America that are struggling in an evermore sophisticated, crowded and competitive media market.

A growing number of elected officials like Casey are becoming aware of the burden — and its long-term consequences. They’ve begun to realize that a future without a vibrant crop of local print newspapers is no good — we become a nation with no media accountability — a land ruled by fake news.

Worse, there is no voice from the heartland. So if you think we’re regarded as “flyover” territory now, think about what it would be without any local newspaper.

“It is our local newspapers ... that have struggled the most as Americans across the country make difficult choices in the face of stagnant wages,” Casey said as part of his testimony.

The Pennsylvania News Media Association, a statewide trade group that includes the Butler Eagle, praised Casey and senators from five other states, along with 14 members of Congress, as they testified last week before the U.S. International Trade Commission against the newsprint tariffs.

Trump’s 22 percent tariff on newsprint has been collected since January, but the Commerce Department has not made it permanent yet. That decision is supposed to be made sometime in August.

In the meantime, lawmakers have introduced legislation in the House and Senate to remove the tariffs and authorize a study on how much they are crippling local newspapers. Known as the Protecting Rational Incentives in Newsprint Trade Act — PRINT Act, for short — would suspend the U.S. tariffs on Canadian newsprint while the Commerce Department studies “the negative impact the tariffs have on our hometown newspapers.”

The bill has bipartisan support and sponsorship in both chambers. Primary sponsor Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., said she introduced the bill because the tariffs threaten the very survival of local newspapers. By all means this legislation should be enacted, and the study conducted, before we find out by a more difficult route she was correct.

Sen. Casey and other Pennsylvania legislators should be encouraged to continue their support of the PRINT Act. While they’re at it, the legislators should consider imposing a sales tax on interstate e-commerce, which gives unfair advantage to online merchants and sucks vital income from small-town retailers and services. Small businesses struggle with limited advertising dollars. Newspapers raise their subscription rates, subscribers shop online to save a dollar. It’s a vicious cycle.

We echo the sentiments of Susan Rowell, president of the National Newspaper Association: “On behalf of community newspapers, we believe the Department of Commerce must fully understand how irretrievable the damage to our publications and our towns would be if trade policy continues to force newsprint costs higher. If you want to silence a free press, take away the newsprint. That is what is happening now, and it is simply wrong.”