Caucus the chairman of the finance committee somebody that certainly understands tax policy and fiscal policy for this country extremely well. And this legislation that were considering is a jobs bill. Its about energy. Its about jobs. Its about Economic Growth. Its about National Security. But for somebody like the senator from utah whos working on reforming our tax code and how we can stimulate Economic Growth in this country id like to turn to him here right at the outset and say as somebody that truly understands how our economy works and how we have to build a Good Business climate in this country and we have to empower the development of of infrastructure roads and rail, pipelines and transmission lines, as part of building an Energy Policy that will truly make this energy this Nation Energy secure. Id like to turn to him and ask him if he would take a few minutes and address not only this project on its on the broad basis of its merits but particularly some of the economic aspects that are so important when were talking about growing our economy and putting our people in this country to work in good jobs. Mr. Hatch mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from utah. Mr. Hatch mr. President , i want to thank my distinguished colleague for leading this fight fight. He has been leading it for years now. Its such a nobrainer its amazing to me that we even have to go through this again. But i want to thank him for yielding to me and id like to associate myself with many of the persuasive arguments that have been made here by my colleagues both democrat and republican urging the speedy passage of this legislation. To me the decision to approve this pipeline is an obvious one for a host of reasons. It will support more than 42,000 goodpaying jobs. I didnt quite get what the assistant minority leader was saying here today on how few jobs it creates. It actually will support more than 42,000 goodpaying jobs during its construction phase. It will contribute more than 3. 4 billion to our gross domestic product. It will aid in the goal of north American Energy independence. And as the state departments Environmental Impact statement found, building the keystone x. L. Pipeline will actually be better for the environment than not building it. The Energy Resources that the canadians produce will reach the market regardless of whether this pipeline is built and keystone x. L. Is by far the safest, the cleanest and the most efficient means of doing so so. Why are there arguments against it, my gosh, other than phony environmental arguments . Mr. President , that was the state department controlled by them. Mr. President , as a commonsense bipartisan jobs and infrastructure measure this bill is exactly the source the sort of legislation that the senate should be considering as its first order of business in this new congress. But it should not have to be. The story here is about more than a single pipeline, no matter how many jobs its construction will create no matter how important it is for our Energy Independence and no matter how environmentally sound it is. This is a story about a regulatory process that is clearly broken. This is a story about special interests manipulating the bureaucracy to muck up the process that should be very simple and uncontroversial. And this is a story about just one of many examples of tragically missed opportunities to create goodpaying jobs and provide relief for Household Budgets across the country. Mr. President , the application for approval of the keystone x. L. Pipeline was first filed in september of 2008, more than six years ago. United states senators have served more than a full term during that particular time. Children born after the application was filed are now in first grade. The notion that any Infrastructure Project should be held up for such a long period is disturbing. Not just to me but i think to anybody who carefully looks at this. But the delay of keystone x. L. Is even worse given the strong and welldocumented economic and environmental case for the pipeline. Keystone is the sort of a project that should have been quickly and easily approved for construction. But for some committed environmentalists inside and outside the Obama Administration administration, commonsense and balanced consideration of the facts no longer matter. Instead, to them, the simple pipeline has become a political symbol. Regardless of what the science tells us. And they have directed their ample energies at throwing up every procedural roadblock imaginable to the approval of the pipeline. As a result, this project has endured delay after delay after delay. Mr. President , over the past few years, the American People have rightly developed the impression that washington is broken. There can be no better example of the consequence of this dysfunction than the holdup of the keystone x. L. Pipeline sitting in bureaucratic purgatory. When a project such as this, which is good for jobs good for families good for families budgets, gets dogged down in the Obama Administrations red tape it is absolutely the responsibility of the congress to act. Unfortunately for years, the senate became a place where good ideas, like approving keystone x. L. Came to die where control of the calendar and the amendment process prevented the consideration of so many good bipartisan issues and ideas. Not only was the Administration Administration the administrative process broken but the senate was also paralyzed and unable to step in and fix it. Mr. President , by taking up this important bill as our first matter of consideration in this new congress, we are taking steps to restore the senate to the great legislative body it was meant to be. It is meant to be. The place where senators work across the aisle to meet the needs of the American People. By coming together to propose a commonsense solution to get back on track this project that has become such a symbol of whats wrong with washington my friends from north dakota and West Virginia are demonstrating exactly the sort of thoughtful inclusive and bipartisan leadership that the American People have been demanding as theyve watched this greatest deliberative body in the world become the laughingstock of the world because we havent gotten very much done. We havent gotten very much done because of the way its been run over the last number of years. It is my sincere hope that we move quickly and desperately and deliberately to approve this measure and that we soon begin considering serious Regulatory Reform to prevent the sort of abuses that we have seen bedevil the keystone x. L. Project. The American People deserve an efficient and effective regulatory process that works for them and its time for the senate to deliver. Having said these few words, i want to personally thank my distinguished colleagues from north dakota and my colleagues from the West Virginia for the leadership that theyve provided on this issue. Senator hoeven is a former governor. He knows what hes talking about. Hes one of the most reasonable, decent, honorable people in this body. He has shown a great willingness to work with both sides. He has continued to fight for this even though its been uphill the last six years better than six years. Hes continued to fight for it because its right. Its the right thing to do. And its in our best interest to do it and to do it now. Thank you mr. President. I yield the floor. Mr. Hoeven mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from north dakota. Mr. Hoeven id like to thank the distinguished senator from utah for his leadership both today on this floor but for many years. And pick up on a point that he emphasized and did so very eloquently. And hes in a unique position to comment on it and thats the importance of having this open amendment process having regular order on the senate floor, allowing senators to republican and democrat alike to come forward bring their ideas forward, bring their amendments forward, have this discussion and do it in an open way. And, you know, the whole effort here is to produce good Energy Legislation that will help this country move forward but also to foster bipartisanship to foster bipartisanship on this bill and other legislation so that we can get the work done that this body needs to get done on behalf of the American People. Thats what this is all about. This is about getting the work done for the American People on the important issues that our country faces. And thats why this bill is s. 1. Not just because its Important Energy infrastructure legislation, not just because we need to have this debate on energy, not just because we need to advance legislation to help build our Energy Future but because it is truly an effort to get this body working in a bipartisan way on this and other important issues for the American People. And thats what the American People want. They want us to get the job done. And so again i want to thank the senator from utah for bringing out that important fact and discussing why it is so important that we approach legislation in that way. And id like to turn to my good friend the . Are senator from friend the senior senator from the great state of arkansas, somebody who really i think has not only a good understanding of how our economy works what needs to be done somebody who has good relationships on both sides of the aisle which is so important as we try to build support for this and other legislation but somebody whose state is directly affected, mr. President by this project. And i know that youll agree with me that its very important on behalf of the state of arkansas that we move forward with the keystone x. L. Pipeline project. I think some a very High Percentage of the pipe that goes into this project about a 1,200milelong project, is actually manufactured and made in arkansas. So heres clear benefit for workers Manufacturing Industry and workers in the state of arkansas that correlates directly to this project and to this legislation. And so id like to turn to the senator the senior senator from arkansas and ask him about that and say tell us about the importance of this project in terms of what it means to the great state of arkansas. Mr. Boozman mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from arkansas. Mr. Boozman mr. President , it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to talk about the Keystone Pipeline. I also want to thank the senator from north dakota for literally his tireless efforts his leadership on behalf of getting the Keystone Pipeline project moving. For the past six years ive urged the administration to approve the project. Ive voted for legislation to speed up the pipeline construction. This pipeline makes sense for job creation and the future of our Nations Energy supply. In a recent email survey sent to more than 30,000 arkansans i asked what issues the new majority in the senate should focus on in the 114th congress. Participants told me that one of their Top Priorities is the an alloftheabove Energy Policy that addresses current and future energy needs. The senate has an opportunity to pass legislation that is a commonsense plan to improve our Nations Energy supply by approving the keystone x. L. Pipeline. Tapping into these Canadian Oil Sands will offer us a reliable source of energy from one of our strongest allies and trading partners. This is good news as we work to reduce our dependence on oil from regions of the world that are hostile towards our country and its good news for arkansas. Heres why. Approval of the Infrastructure Projects means jobs. This is one reason it has the support of both parties. Organized labor has been very vocal in support of the pipeline. Unions understand that this Infrastructure Project will create wellpaying jobs for skilled laborers and it will do so at no expense to the taxpayers. Its not only just unions, certainly businesses are supportive of the pipeline too as well as an overwhelming majority of americans. Last month as the senator from north dakota alluded to, i toured the wellton tubular country, the little locks company hired to build hundreds of miles of pipeline for it is project. The companys officers estimated that 150 jobs will be created just to load the pipe on the rail cars for shipment when the project gets the green light finally. The Economic Impact has wide impact on arkansas. We have a Company Making steel for the pipeline and theres a strict he willdown impact a trickledown impact throughout the state. A caterpillar employee wrote to me about the importance of this project to his job because of its impact to his livelihood. The Keystone Pipeline would be a huge boost to us, he wrote. Once not the infrastructure will provide a safe and reliable supply of energy. Currently this oil is transported from canada to refineries by rail and truck. A new modern pipeline poses less risk to the environment than these current modes of transportation. The project will help maintain lower fuel prices which is good for all americans. At every hurdle, using science and commonsense this project gets the green light. Last week nebraskas Supreme Court upheld the states law approval a route for the pipeline through the state. Time and again this project passes the test but the president has threatened to veto the bill. This isnt surprising considering the administration has spent more than six years analyzing this and punting a decision down the road until further studies have been conducted. The pipeline is being studied literally to death. Its ready to go. And yet the president is still looking for ways to stop it. The American People deserve this affordable energy. They deserve wellpaying jobs. Both can be accomplished by building the Keystone Pipeline. And again, i want to thank the senator from north dakota for his tireless efforts in the past six years trying to get this project off the ground, and the good news is i think weve made real progress. I yield the floor. Mr. Hoeven mr. President . Id like to thank the senator and i will point out this is another state that will benefit from this project. This is a state far removed from the route of the project. As i pointed out in earlier debate on this floor all of the states on the route from montana to texas have approved the project, all of them. Theyve all approved it. The only entity Still Holding up the approval of the keystone x. L. Pipeline is the federal government the Obama Administration. All the states have approved it. Those states on the route will realize tremendous benefits from the construction and the construction dollars, from the hundreds of millions of dollars that they will receive in tax revenues payment in lieu of taxes at the state and local level, they will receive tremendous benefit from this project, not to mention, of course, the benefit that the whole country receives as we become more Energy Independent by working with canada to truly achieve north American Energy security. But heres a state arkansas, far removed from the route of the pipeline. I dont think the oil will actually go to any of the i dont know about refineries in arkansas. I dont think that there are refineries it will go to. Like it will go to refineries in states like louisiana and texas and so forth. But even still even still arkansas will benefit directly from this project because they manufacture much of the pipe that goes into the project and those are good manufacturing jobs that not only benefits those workers but then you have the secondary impacts as well. So again i want to thank the senator from arkansas for coming down to the floor today and just taking a few minutes to point that out and well continue over the next several weeks to talk about the benefits in other states as well. Again, i want to thank the good senator from arkansas. At this time even though i have floor time reserved until about 11 15 or a little more, i would like to actually stop for a minute and allow the the senator from washington to talk about her views on it. I know that she is not a of course i work with her on the Energy Committee. She is our Ranking Member. I enjoy and appreciate working with her. But i understand she shares different views in this case. So i would ask unanimous consent that her time for the next ten to 15 minutes that she needs not be counted against my time, that i would be willing to defer so that she could speak at this time. The presiding officer without objection. Ms. Cantwell thank you mr. President. I thank the senator from north dakota. I know were going to be going back and forth on this issue and that we have speakers coming later this morning and were going to have time divided but i appreciate the senator of north dakota allowing us to join in the debate this morning and make a few mountains. And i do want to say i appreciate the senator from north dakotas hard work