Expire Act of 2014 -- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, this week members of both parties have offered a number of energy-related amendments to the pending bill. The minority leader has even said he is willing to limit the number of amendments to five--five energy-related amendments--and the majority leader continues to say no.

I am not sure what the majority leader is afraid of in terms of allowing people to vote. People come to the Senate and they are expected to speak up and tell people their positions on various issues.

One of the amendments I had hoped to offer today expedites liquefied natural gas exports. The magazine The Economist recently published an article with the headline: ``The petro-state of America: The energy boom is good for America and the world. It would be nice if Barack Obama helped a bit.''

The article explains that the process for obtaining permits to export liquefied natural gas from the United States is insanely slow.

This isn't an exaggeration. In over 3 1/2 years, the administration has approved only seven applications to export LNG. The administration is sitting on 24 pending applications. Fourteen have been pending for more than a year, and some have been pending for more than 2 years. These administration delays are unacceptable. The excuses have run out.

We have introduced legislation. LNG exports are a critical component of stopping Russian aggression against our key allies and strategic partners. Nine of our NATO allies import 40 percent or more of their natural gas from Russia. Four of our NATO allies import 100 percent of their natural gas from Russia. These are our allies. Yet they are heavily dependent on Russia for their energy.

LNG exports would help our NATO allies as well as our strategic partners and allow them to free themselves from Russian energy. That is why our NATO allies are calling on us--on Congress--and the United States to expedite these LNG exports.

These will give our allies an alternative supplier of natural gas and enable them to resist Russia's aggression.

It is going to be an added benefit for our country in terms of creating thousands of good-paying jobs here in the United States. As the Economist explained, LNG exports ``could generate tankerloads of cash'' for America. The exports will create jobs in gasfields in Wyoming, steel mills in the Midwest, and at our Nation's ports.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

I yield the floor.

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