Providing For Consideration of H.R. 5682, Approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, for the past 6 years, President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Kerry, and Senate Democrats have made sure that the American people would continue to wait for the Keystone pipeline.
The Keystone pipeline provides jobs, energy security, and perhaps most of all a closer and better relationship with our friends from Canada.
Mr. Speaker, quite honestly, the bottom line is we need to do business with our friends in Canada rather than friends in other places around the world who may be using that money that they receive for reasons that are not in America's best interest. We trust the Canadians.
Today we have a bill on the floor because we believe that House Republicans, being led by Dr. Bill Cassidy, can lead us to a way to construct the Keystone pipeline, provide us with a closer relationship with Canada, and make sure that the TransCanada application to construct the Keystone XL pipeline will be done. That is why we are here on the floor of the House of Representatives today.
With that said, I rise in support of not only this rule that will provide the context for the bill but also the legislation.
Let me be perfectly clear today: this bill to approve the Keystone pipeline is a jobs bill. Over the last few years, too many Americans have been out of work, not always in the right places where jobs were available, but too many Americans are out of work, and this is an area where people are out of work and need the work and can get it.
Wages have been stagnant, and median incomes for American families have fallen because this administration and the policies of the Democratic Party have led to a stagnation of the free enterprise system, and an opportunity in particular in the area of energy has been a political issue rather than a jobs issue for the American people.
The Keystone pipeline would support tens of thousands of great-paying jobs and help resolve some problems in this area and across a multistate area of the West. Yet President Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton, and Senate Democrats have stood constantly and consistently in the way of job-creating, shovel-ready projects.
For 6 years we have known that the impact of the Keystone pipeline would be positive on the American economy, with positive benefits that it would provide for the American people. For 6 years, we have known that the pipeline would add over a billion dollars of revenue to a tepid economy, a billion dollars in places where people are out of work, need work. And it can be done through efficiency and effectiveness of this pipeline.
Americans have been looking for leadership to secure energy independence, energy independence to where we no longer have to go across the oceans to receive the energy that we need. With this pipeline, it is an important step, I believe, in the right direction.
When completed, the Keystone pipeline will transport over 800,000 barrels of oil every single day. That is equivalent to half of our daily oil imports from the Middle East.
Mr. Speaker, that is competition with the current system. That is how you get prices lower at the gas pump, by having competition, competition with the Middle East for the oil that we will use in this country.
This will further help lower energy costs for American families while helping to bolster our national security by weaning us off oil from nations that sometimes do not have our best interests in their own mind.
Instead of partnering with countries in the Middle East, the Keystone pipeline lets us work together with our dear friends from Canada.
By approving the Keystone pipeline, the Federal Government will reduce our dependency overnight while creating much-needed jobs and providing billions of dollars in economic opportunity in the USA.
We all know that Keystone can accomplish what the American people want, and that is that we need to work together. Mr. Speaker, we need to work together.
Finally, what has happened is that the Senate Democrats are asking for this bill. Regardless of the reason, what we are doing here today is to work together on ideas that we have been trying to push for a long, long time.
In September of 2008, TransCanada submitted their application to the Department of State to construct the Keystone pipeline. Yet the Obama administration has blocked and delayed construction of the pipeline at every single turn. Excuse after excuse after excuse rather than getting it done.
The State Department, led by Secretary Hillary Clinton and Secretary Kerry, has stood firmly in the way of jobs created by this project. They have held dozens of meetings and issued study after study, each of which confirms what Republicans have said all along, and that is, the pipeline will create jobs and inject billions of dollars into the American economy while doing so in a safe and limited environmental impact way.
Beginning in 2011, with Republicans, as soon as they won this body and became the majority, we started passing laws to jump-start the pipeline. Time after time I have been on the floor of this body--and, Mr. Speaker, you have stood faithfully in your chair to listen to the debates. It is you, Mr. Speaker, who has been behind this idea to make sure that we would keep it as a part of our objective. An objective for the American people, opportunities for the American people, and a friendship with the Canadians. Sadly, Senate Democrats have refused to allow even a vote.
Yet just yesterday the Keystone pipeline suddenly became a hot topic on the Senate floor. A hot topic because they want to get it done now.
Well, so what has changed? Last week, after 6 long years, Members of the Senate finally decided to listen to the American people. The House has been listening and acting for 4 years now, but now that the Senate is prepared to join us, we are here to work together.
The House is prepared to pass this bill from Dr. Bill Cassidy, oh, yes, from an energy State called Louisiana. A dear friend of not only this body but a dear friend of consumers and families who understand that we need to reduce even further costs at the gas pump, that we need to be concerned about where we buy our oil and our energy and to make sure we are doing business with the friends and people we know.
So they can pass it and they can send it to the President's desk. We are going to send the same bill. Same bill they are doing in the Senate is the same one we are going to do here. We are going to get it to the President. No more delays, no more excuses. It is actually time to make the Keystone pipeline a reality.
Said another way, the election is over; let's get our work done.
I am proud that the House has led on this issue. I look forward to the Senate joining us. I hope the President will do the same thing. I hope we will sign another jobs bill that has been passed by the House of Representatives.
I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Speaker, just so we really are a little bit clear, the President indicated last week what he might do on this exact issue of Keystone pipeline. He said that he would consider signing the bill if it creates jobs.
So, Mr. President, the study from your own State Department said that construction on Keystone would create over 42,000 jobs, so there is one answer to our President.
Another one, the President said he would consider signing the bill if it was good for the American people, good for their pocketbooks, if it were to reduce gas prices. Now, that is what the President said.
Once again, I have good news. Good news. Keystone pipeline will move up to 830,000 barrels of oil a day through an efficient process. Instead of it coming from halfway around the world, which adds cost to the transportation, it will come through a pipeline and be here real efficiently, so I think we are in good stead there to meet the test for the President.
Mr. Speaker, at this time, I would like to let you know that I have got five or six speakers that are here who are excited about this opportunity for jobs, a jobs bill that is on the floor today and the creation of legislation to have the XL pipeline.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Speaker, I think we are seeing the same heresy take place here on the floor, and that is trying to scare people. It is Republicans who are trying to move a job bill, and jobs, the American people understand. Let's keep this thing right in the center of the table.
It is about jobs. It is about energy independence. It is about a working relationship with our friends. It is about lessening our dependence upon giving people in other countries in foreign lands our money that they don't always use in our best interest. It is about national security, and it is about a lot of things that make common sense. What makes common sense is not to scare people, but give them the facts of the case.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Colorado, and I will tell you, we are trying to keep the stage set that we in the Republican majority are leading for jobs for America. We are leading to help gas at the pump be less than what it has been. It doubled under President Obama's watch because they have not done the things that would allow more energy to be gotten. Sure, it is being gotten now on private lands, but on Federal lands, we need to do the same.
Once again, the same old worn-out rhetoric standing in the way of jobs in this country. That is why Republicans are now here on the floor again today. Our last bill is about jobs, too, before we leave.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Speaker, once again, we heard our friends on the Democrat side talk about special interest money. They were talking about green energy: $18 billion a year is spent, money that would be spent like what was spent on Solyndra, sole-source contracts to companies that have gone belly up. Those are the ideas of the Democrat Party and the ideas of this President. The ideas of this President are they have taken over 6 years--2,246 days--the President of the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Kerry, an administration that stands in the way of the operation of getting people jobs, of doing the things that the American people want and need. That is why what happened this first Tuesday in November, the American people said: We have had enough.
I, as a Republican, don't take it that we are just outstanding and they elected us. What they said is: We are sick and tired of the direction we're headed. We want serious things to happen.
We have a brand new Governor in Maryland and a brand new Governor in Illinois. There is a lot of information that is out there, ready for us. We Republicans came right back to work. The Senate is doing the same. They are trying to pass this. We are trying to take the exact same bill that we were asked to do, with the expectation and understanding it can pass this body.
It is a well-understood bill. It hasn't taken us 6 years--2,246 days--to figure it out. If this administration can't figure the dang thing out, they need to admit they do not know how to read or lead. And I don't know which one it is, but either they can't read or they cannot lead. They need to know that the American people expect us to go get the work done. That is what you heard Mr. Collins say. The Republican Party is up to the task. The Republican Party, through the leadership of John A. Boehner and the leadership of what will be Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is going to do exactly that.
We are going to take all the issues, including the one the gentleman talks about all day and every day--and that is immigration--and we are going to have an immigration bill. And we are going to do the right thing.
But today we are talking about jobs: jobs and opportunities for people that need them. We need competition for the price of energy. We need to make sure we don't depend as much on the Middle East and that we work with our friends from Canada. And it does not take the Republican Party 6 years, or 2,246 days, to try and make a decision. The Republican Party is here today.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying bill. I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
Source