Keystone XL Pipeline

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I appreciate and want to salute the significant leadership we have seen on this issue from the Senator from North Dakota. He has been a stalwart fighter, very focused on this issue, and focused on putting together a bipartisan coalition of supporters. Americans want the jobs, they want the energy, they want action. We have an opportunity, but we have been waiting 6 long years.

The Senator from North Dakota is absolutely right. It was at a meeting in the Republican conference where the President of the United States came in. I asked the specific question: When will we expect an answer so we can get moving with the jobs and the energy that the

American people are asking for?

President Obama said: Well, by the end of the year. He said that almost a year and a half ago. It was the end of the year 2013 that the promise was going to be fulfilled. Now here we are halfway--beyond halfway--through 2014. Nothing yet. Not a thing from the White House, a White House held hostage by environmental extremists who are trying to block important jobs and important energy and this important project.

We are here in the Senate today and the majority leader is ready to close this place down until after the elections. He closed it down--if you count the number of days from the beginning of August, all through August, a few days in session in September, but most of September not in session, and then all of October up through the election, you are talking 3 months, with the Senate in session for just 2 weeks. It is embarrassing. Where is the accountability? We are sure not getting it from the majority leader. The majority leader ought to bring this for a vote today. But he is not going to. He is going to shut down the Senate today, making sure these jobs are not there, that the energy is not there for the American people. The Keystone XL Pipeline bipartisan support is an excellent example of a project that could help us from the standpoint of energy security, from the standpoint of economic growth, the standpoint of helping our economy getting people back to work.

But yet the majority leader is not going to allow a vote today, 6 years in the waiting on this specific important project. I would say to my friend and colleague from North Dakota, I know our friends and colleagues from Oklahoma and Georgia are here on the floor. I want to hear their comments as well. I salute the Senator from North Dakota for his continued leadership, for his focus, and for continuing to work to make America better, in terms of jobs, in terms of the economy, and in terms of energy. I know the Senator will not stop until we finally get this project approved, completed, and constructed.

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