Securing American Jobs Through Exports Act of 2012--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, today I rise to echo the comments made by my colleague, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Throughout Senator Hatch's distinguished career, he has served this Senate and this Nation in a number of major leadership capacities. I am most grateful for his ongoing leadership and the position he has taken in the Senate Western Caucus--that of being chairman of the caucus's Subcommittee on Public Lands.

Senator Hatch, along with Senator Moran and I, has laid out a clear path to energy security and job creation. The bill is called the Western Economic Security Today Act, or the WEST Act.

President Obama told Congress he would ``keep trying every new idea that works.'' He went on to say he would ``listen to every good proposal, no matter which party comes up with it.''

Well, last year Western Republicans laid out a clear path to energy security and job creation for the Western United States and for the country. The report is entitled ``Jobs Frontier, Breaking Down Washington's Barriers to America's Red, White and Blue Jobs.''

President Obama should listen to and embrace the findings in this report. The House of Representatives has passed key pieces of legislation over the past year from this Jobs Frontier Report. These are pieces of legislation that will begin to generate quality jobs and increase U.S. energy production.

These bills tackle key critical issues, such as encouraging energy exploration and production and removing unnecessary EPA regulations. This legislation would create thousands--thousands--of jobs for Americans.

The WEST Act contains language from eight of these bills already passed by the House that were part of the Jobs Frontier original report. This legislation accomplishes many of the goals of the Jobs Frontier Report. It does it by increasing affordable American energy. It does it by promoting agriculture and ranching. And it does it by overturning Washington's regulatory overreach.

The bottom line is this act is ready to create jobs now, today, and to set the Nation on the path to becoming more energy secure.

So I am here to congratulate Senator Hatch for bringing this important bill forward.

I yield the floor.

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