And its one of six montana counties that the keystone x. L. Pipeline will route through. Now, circle like a lot of small communities in montana, has experienced the same economic and population declines that towns have faced in recent years. In fact, the county has significant infrastructure needs that have gone unresolved in the wake of a shrinking tax base. Now, for towns like circle, the keystone x. L. Pipeline isnt just about energy. It represents Economic Opportunity and hope for the future. You see mccomb county alone would see 18 million in property tax revenues from the Keystone Pipeline construction and thats just in the pipelines first year of operation. Now, thats money for neighborhoods, its for roads not to mention the influx of jobs for the area. Now, another 45 million would be distributed among five other montana counties and 16 million would go to montanas schools and university systems. You see these keystone x. L. Pipeline means Lower Energy Costs for montana families for our Senior Citizens and for small businesses. In glasco, montana, i remember traveling in my pickup and i met with the Norval Electric coop. They told me if the Keystone Pipeline is approved, that they will hold electric rates flat for their customers for the next 10 years. Thats several thousand montana families up in the northeast part of our state. The reason for that is because they will supply the electricity to the pump stations on the Keystone Pipeline. If the Keystone Pipeline is not approved those ratepayers will see an approximate 40 increase in their utility rates over the next 10 years. Thats a potential increase of about 480 per year for the average household in montana. Now, as the senator from north dakota mentioned 100,000 barrels a day of the oil traveling through the Keystone Pipeline will be montana and north dakota oil. That supports the bakken formation which the revolution of hydraulic fracturing is creating now lower gas prices at the pump today. Montanans know this pipeline isnt just a lofty idea or some kind of d. C. Based rhetoric. It is hope for the people of my state. Its a tangible result and a solution that montanans deserve. And ive got to tell you thats why its so disappointing that once again were seeing the president and some Senate Democrats playing political games and perpetuating the six years of gridlock that have held back this jobcreating project. And rather than putting the American People first the president has threatened to refuse the people of montana their right to determine their economic future. You know, it took the canadians it took the canadians just seven months to approve their end of the Keystone Pipeline. Its taken this president more than six years. Thats six years without the hundreds of goodpaying jobs that would be created in montana and thousands more across the nation. Thats six years without millions of dollars in critical revenue for montanas schools for infrastructure, for teachers. Thats six years without the answers and action that montanans deserve. You know, i think the pipeline checks every box of common sense sense. Its environmentally sound. It creates jobs. Its Economic Opportunity. And its going to help us towards north American Energy independence. So the question why are we still waiting . The people of montana, the people of this country have said theyve had enough and thats why were here today speaking out in support of this important project. I am proud that the senate is taking steps to move forward the keystone x. L. Pipeline and the house i know intends to do the same shortly. President obama can continue to obstruct progress on american jobs and on American Energy independence but the American People have sent a strong message that they are ready to remove any roadblocks that president obama intends to put in the way. The time for partisanship the time for political games is over over. It is time this congress and this government gets to work for the American People and start getting results for this country. The polls are clear. 7 of the American People want the Keystone Pipeline approved. 75 of montanans wanted the Keystone Pipeline approved. Prior to sesqui in congress, i spent 28 years in the private sector focused on getting results in the real world. Only in d. C. Are we outside the real world of doing something and getting results on behalf of the American People and that starts with approving the stone to enstone. Thank you mr. President. I yield back to the senator from north dakota. Mr. Hoeven youre hearing from somebody whos there, who is a talking to the people, where this project is going to be located. One of the states that it passes through. So i thank him for his perspective and for his hard work and commend him for being here and for his continued efforts, not toll not only to work with our caucus but to reach out to the Democratic Caucus as well and find Common Ground on this important issue. Something that the senator from West Virginia said just a minute ago is lets focus on the facts. Lets focus on the facts. Because i think the more understanding we create as to what the facts are this gets done on the merits. So i want to turn to the senator from wyoming somebody whos got long experience with energy, somebody who comes from an energy state a state that produces a variety of energy sourcessers and pose the same question to him and in terms of focusing on the facts whether it is the environmental aspect, whether it is the jobs, whether its making our country energysecure, talk to us a little bit about the importance of this kind of vital Infrastructure Projects like keystone for our country. Mr. Barrasso mr. President let me first thank and congratulate the senator from north dakota for his dogged determination in fighting for these american jobs, for Energy Security for our country so im so grateful for his hard work. Hes really just been tenacious in his fight to get this bill bill to pass the senate and to the president s desk. I also want to congratulate my friend and colleague tbr from montana. Last year the American People elected 12 new senators to serve in this body. He is one of them. I had an opportunity to travel with him in montana. A great background. He is creative, innovative, energetic. He has gone he is going to do a tremendous job not just for his state and the Rocky Mountain west but for at for the entire United States. We were able to hear from him today. He is going to be a remarkable addition to this body. Mr. President , i know that all of these dozen new republican senators as eager as the rest of us in the new republican majority to start fulfilling our obligation to the people we represent. Americans elected a Republican Congress because they wanted a chaifnlgt theychange. They wanted to change the direction that president obama and the democrats have taken the country. Under the democrat leadership of the past several years the senate was a place of dysfunction and gridlock. More than 40 jobs bills passed by the house of representatives in the last Congress Never even came up for a vote in the United States senate. Many of those bills had over whelming bipartisan support just like this one were debating today. Those days are over. That is a completely unacceptable way to run the United States senate. All of us here in the senate, republicans and democrats, have been given an opportunity to Work Together and to get things done. Thats what the American People told us on election day. Its what they are expecting from us, and i believe it is what they are demanding of us. Now, the poster child for the gridlock and the dysfunction of washington has been the keystone x. L. Pipeline. For more than six years it has been a symbol of outofcontrol washington bureaucracy. The state department has absolutely refused to do its job and to make any kind of decision on the pipelines application. The keystone x. L. Pipeline has also been a symbol of gridlock in the senate. A small group of extreme environmentalists with deep pockets has bullied Democrat Members of the senate to block a bill that would move this important jobs project further. According to the latest figures the americans Labor Force Participation rate have woefully low. It is just 62. 8 . Democrats in this body are democrats in this body, are they satisfied with that number . Is the president of the United States, barack obama sophisticated with this pathetic level of participation in americas labor force . I can tell you that people in my state, republicans all around the country theyre not satisfied. Thats why were determined to push jobceefting legislation jobcreating legislation like this hoeven bill to advantages the keystone x. L. Pipeline. Now, the president has said theres no benefit to this important infrastructure project. During a press conference last month, president obama actually chaimed that the project is not even going to be of nominal benefit, he said, to the United States consumers. Apparently thats what the president believes. Hes wrong. Just ask the obama administrations own state department. It says that the pipeline would support more than 42,000 jobs. Some are construction jobs, some in the modification jobs, including jobs at hotels along the route. Does president obama think that a good job that is not even a nominal benefit to america a country where we get 42,000 jobs by this pipeline . According to the Congressional Research service, there are already 1 pipelines 9 pipelines operating across u. S. Borders . Why is this one not even a nominal benefit according to the president . Why has the president not made a decision about whether to approve the pipeline or is not the president has taken a position on this bipartisan bill according to the press secretary on tuesday says the president will not sign this bill once Congress Passes it. The state department has done one study after another showing the pipeline would create jobs understand that it would have significant and that it would have no significant environmental impact. Now, president obama a had been downplaying those benefits and threntsding to veto the bill. Thats not president ial leadership. Now republicans are going to show the leadership that the American People have been asking for and that they voted for last november. Were going to bring a bill to the floor force the president finally do to do something by putting it on the president s desk. Democrats have been playing politics with this pipeline bill. The republican majority will now get it done. Were going to allow a vote on this project. Were going to allow senators to offer amendments. What a unique situation in the United States senate. Were going to let everyone say which side theyre on. This will be a bellwether decision. Are members of the senate in favor of 42,000 jobs for American Workers or are they in favor of more washington delay . Democrats will have a chance to make their arguments. The extreme opponents of this project will make misleading claims try to discount the pipelines benefits and theyll try to stoke peoples fears. Weve seen it all before. At the end of the day heres what this autoall comes down to heres what this all comes down to. Four things. First, the stone to enstone will support more than the keystone x. L. Pipeline will Appellate Court more than 42,000 jobs in the United States. Second, it will be a private investment of 8 billion not taxpayer spending, private spending. Third, it will have minimal effect on the environment. And, fourth, the pipeline is actually safer than other methods of getting that oil to manchetmarket. Congress should approve this pipeline and pass this bill, and the president should sign it. The keystone x. L. Pipeline is a job create he. It has bipartisan support and has been stuck in washingtons bureaucratic gridlock. Its interesting when i listen to the president s comments about jobs and what the impact is going to be. It makes me think about what the president of the Laborers International union of north america said a summer a year ago. He was scheduled to testify at todays hearing of the energy and Natural Resources committee a hearing that now the minority, the democratic acting leader, senator durbin, objected to having yesterday. He objected to just a hearing and a discussion. And its interesting. There was a press release from the president of the union who was quoted on the subject of the economic benefits associated with construction of the pipeline. He said, the president president obama seems to dismiss the corresponding Economic Opportunities that would benefit other laborers, manufacturers, smashings and small businesses, and communities throughout keystones supply chaifnlt he said the washington politics behind the delay of the keystone x. L. Pipeline are of little concern to those seeking the dignity of a good highpaying job. Rhee we renewwe renew our call to the president. A job says something about someones identity, selfworth. People take a lot of personal pride in their work and in their job. I think we ought to approve t im ready to sphroart it. The American People have been clear. They are tired of washingtons gridlock and delay. They are tired of the direction that president obama has been taking this country. The American Voters demand change. They demanded action. And this Republican Congress is going to deliver just that. So i say to my friend and colleague from north dakota, and i see also that the chairman of the Senate Energy committee has arrived, thank you both for our leadership your leadership on energy in north dakota, to the senator from north dakota, former governor there and thank you specifically also for your leadership to the senator the senior senator from alaska, the chair of the Energy Committee and i look forward to working with both of you specifically on this project and on additional issues that will bring American Energy security and jobs to our nation. Id like to mr. President , i would like to thank the senator from wyoming for his comments today and for his continued hard work on this important issue and i look forward to working with him again to get this done for the american. Mr. Hoeven and i like to turn to our leader on the Energy Committee, the chairman of the Energy Committee the senator from alaska, certainly someone that understands energy, another state that produces a huge amount of energy for this country, and can produce more but only with the infrastructure to do it. This country can have more jobs, nor Economic Growth and more energy that we produce right here at home. But, senator dont we need the infrastructure to move that energy as safely and costeffectively as possible . Ms. Murkowski it is all about infrastructure. In alaska, in my home state, we have boundless supplies of oil of natural gas but until we were able to build that 800mile pipeline across two mountain ranges to deliver that oil from alaskas north slope to tidewater in valdez, that oil didnt do anybody any good. Now that oil pipeline in alaska is less than half full, and so were working to try to figure out how we do more as state to contribute to our Nations Energy needs to allow us as a state to be producing more for the benefit not only of our state but of the nation as awell. But yet were held back by policies that limit us. So its policies and its infrastructure. Its absolutely infrastructure. Were trying to move alaskas natural gas to market as well. But, again if you dont have the infrastructure, it sits, it stays, it doesnt benefit the consumers, it doesnt create the jobs it doesnt help any of us out. So keystone truly is about infrastructure. And i thank my colleague from north dakota for leading on this issue for years now for reintroducing the Legislation Senate bill 1 the first bill to be filed in the senate this year. It will be it will be, mr. President , among the first bills to pass in this new congress and appropriately so. Appropriately so. This is a measure that, again not only enjoys bipartisan support here in the senate, it enjoys broad support over in the house, but it enjoys support across our nation for great reason. So you say why why are we where we are . Why are we looking at the situation and saying, theres so much frustration going on here . Senator mcconnell has promised to allow open and full debate on the keystone x. L. Pipeline project, the legislation in front of it