Ahead of liberal environmental groups. I encourage my colleagues on the floor with me today, mr. President , to continue pushing for policies that make energy more abundant and more affordable, unlike the heavyhanded regulations weve seen from the Obama Administration, these policies will actually create jobs and help grow the middle class in this country. Im going to continue fighting along with my colleagues who are here, joined me on the floor today to ensure we get votes on these policies and begin to rein in the outofcontrol regulations from the Obama Administration. Mr. President , i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from missouri. Mr. Blunt im pleased to be here with my colleagues talking about ways we can get people back to work, Energy Policies that clearly every economist that you talk to understands are a key to the future, i know the republican leader has joined us on the floor and i think im going to ask him if he has some comments hed like to make and can come back to me at the end of his comments. Mr. Mcconnell i thank my friend from missouri. What weve been talking about here is how to create jobs and, unfortunately, the agenda of the Senate Democratic majority does just the opposite. And it appears as if were not likely to be able to get any amendments offered that would actually create jobs and opportunity for our people. One of the things that ive been so disturbed about over the years is the inability of employees to make a voluntary choice about whether they want to belong to a union. In addition to the energy jobs measures that were discussing here today, i have another related measure id like to highlight, as i mentioned earlier this morning in my opening remarks, enacting national righttowork legislation is just plain common sense. My colleague from kentucky, senator paul, has been the leader on this issue. Its a fundamental issue of worker freedom. This amendment would empower American Workers to choose whether or not theyd like to join a union. It would protect a worker from getting fired if she would rather not pay dues to a union boss who fails to represent her concerns and her priorities. According to one survey, 80 of unionized workers agreed that workers should be able to choose whether to join a union. Its an issue of upward mobility. A worker should be able to be recognized and rewarded for her individual hard work and productivity. That is paycheck fairness. A worker should no longer be held back by an antiquated system where pay raises are based on seniority rather than on merit. This is an issue of leveling the playing field, workers in all states should have a more equal chance of finding work in every state and they should no longer see their communities failing to secure new investment because their state hasnt passed a right to work. So, mr. President , id like to ask unanimous consent that it be in order for me to offer my amendment number 2910 which i have just described to my colleagues here in the senate. The presiding officer is there objection . A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Reed mr. President , reserving my right to object, the underlying measure is a bipartisan response to emergency in terms of extending unemployment, it is a fivemonth temporary extension. Given that nature of the underlying legislation, i would object. The presiding officer objection is heard. The senator from missouri. Mr. Blunt i know nonthune, my friend from south dakota and i have worked for a long time on the kinds of economic and troublesome regulations that hes talked about earlier and nobody appears to be answerable to the people who come forward at these regulations. I think hes got an amendment on that and id like him to have a chance to talk about that amendment. Mr. Thune i thank the senator from missouri, senator blunt, he and i have worked very hard when it comes to the overreach of Government Agencies and the burden of related agencies, regulations, and what its doing to middleclass families and their pocketbooks. I mentioned a couple of amendments that i had filed here that pertained to energy costs in my home state of south dakota. One of which sets a 50 plldz threshold 50 million threshold over which a regulation proposed by the e. P. A. Would have to be voted on by the congress of the United States. And if, in fact, congress rejected it, the e. P. A. Would have to go back to the drawing board to come up with an alternative approach. So that amendment, mr. President , is number 2895 and in the it fits perfectly with what were talking about here today which is growing our economy and creating jobs and trying to do things that would actually get people back to work and certainly the burdensome cost of regulation is a tremendous deterrent and impediment to job creation in this country. Unanimous consent it be in order for me to offered amendment 2895. The presiding officer is there objection . The senior senator from rhode island is recognized. Mr. Reed reserving my right to object, once again, given the emergency nature of this Bipartisan Legislation to address the plight of millions of americans looking for work, i would object and hope we could pass on to passing the underlying legislation. The presiding officer objection is heard. The senator from missouri is recognized. Mr. Blunt mr. President , lets talk about this topic a little bit long of regulation. Again, in my view and my friend from south dakota and i have shared this view a long time, when the Congress Passes laws and i think it is appropriate that were not always in the best place to come up with regulations that put those laws in place, but i believe the country has clearly come to a place where nobody is then answerable for regulations that have a Significant Impact on our economy. The senator from kentucky, senator paul, and i have cosponsored the reins act which would say that any of these laws that meet this kind of threshold, its a bill before the congress, we cant get that bill to the floor. Senator thune and i for a long time have worked on this kind of proposal that would simply create opportunity. Now, the emergency nature of the opportunity is really a fiveyear emergency now to where weve seen job opportunity after job opportunity go away, part of it because of what surely were the unintended but the clear consequences of the Affordable Care act, part of it, rules and regulations that dont make sense to people that are about to take enough of a chance with their with their creation of opportunity for themselves and somebody else without having the idea that someone answerable to them is eventually going to have to answer for what the federal government does and thats what bringing these regulations to the floor would do. Nobody is saying that congress should be responsible for implementing every law in but we should be responsible pour the impact of that law and should have the final say on rules and regulations that we have essentially started in motion, they should come back here. If we dont do this on this bill today we should do this, we should have done this years ago, many of us in this body have believed in the congress for a long time that this is one of the major impediments to job creation and then another impediment is just bad energy policy. Thats why there are so many energy amendments. The amendment that i offered where we couldnt the congress couldnt have a carbon tax unless it passed a threshold of 60 votes. I offered this amendment before in the budget debate last year and 53 of my colleagues, democrats and republicans here on the floor, agreed that yes, we should have a special threshold for this, a tax that makes gas at the gasoline pump more expensive, makes diesel fuel that delivers products more expensive, that raises everybodys utility bill that has some element of fossil fuel in their utilities and thats virtually everybody, that makes it less likely that people will create manufacturing jobs and those kinds of opportunities here, of course we ought to be talking about those kinds of policies, whether its the carbon tax, in ohio, in missouri and wyoming, in the vast middle of the country, our energy comes from fossil fuels. Those are the resources we have. Our focus should be on using those more effectively, not figuring out ways that key wee couldnt use them at all or figuring out ways to double the utility bill. The e. P. A. s own estimate of their own rule that the they say would go up 80 if the rule is in place. I think thats probably a little bit optimistic on their part but 80 , thats almost doubling your current utility bill by two and then thinking about where you work or your daughterinlaw works or your soninlaw works or somebody in your family works, double the utility bill there and decide whether or not there would still be a utility bill there or that company would decide to go somewhere else. The incredibly capable and competitive American Work force is being held back bayou tilt policies by utility policies that hold people back. The energy cost of manufacturing according to the National Association of manufacturers and others, is that a key element now in that final decision to decide whether where youre going to build something, where youre going to make something and most importantly for families, where youre going to create a job that has the kind of takehome pay that families need. And the Keystone Pipeline, the use of the the ability to maximize our use of natural gas, of fracking for oil, we have great resources and we should use those resources to our benefit. Every other country in the world when they look at their tableau of Natural Resources, the first two words that come to mind in every other country in the world are Economic Opportunity or economic advantage. What does this allow us to do that we couldnt do otherwise . What advantage does this give us over our competitors . You cant let the first two words that come to your mind when you look at your Natural Resources be environmental hazard. Whats the worst thing that would happen and what would happen if that happened every day. That is a sure way, one, the worst thing that happened is something you ought to think about, but not be overwhelmed by, you should figure out how 0 to see that doesnt happen and if it does happen, what are we immediately prepared to do about it so its not an ongoing problem . Thats the whole formula that it takes on the energy side, on the Natural Resources side to create opportunity. And the one thing that Government Policies can do, they cant create jobs but they can create an environment where people want to create privatesector jobs. That is and continues to be the numberone priority domestically this congress should be focused on, what do we do to create more privatesector jobs. I think energy is a big part of that. Certainly my friend from wyoming, senator barrasso, who has brought us together here to talk about this, understands that so well. That energy regulation, policies that make sense, are the kind of policies that help us create the opportunities that hardworking families need and that families who would like to see somebody in their family have that job with great takehome pay are focused on. And i would yield back to my friend, senator barrasso. The presiding officer the senator from wyoming is recognized. Mr. Barrasso i appreciate the comments from my colleague, senator blunt, who has been a leader and a champion in the issue a of getting people back to work. We heard the senator from rhode island saying that there are people out there desperately looking for work and what we are doing is bringing to the floor pieces amendments to this piece on the floor that will actually get people back to work nearly immediately. So i rise today to discuss how congress can actually help the people who are unemployed get back to work. Weve been debating all we can whether the senate should extend Unemployment Insurance to the longterm unemployed. Whether or not one supports extending Unemployment Insurance, we should all agree that job creation should be the top priority. This to me is where the Unemployment Insurance bill is currently written falls short. Thats why i along with a number of my colleagues have filed amendments which would help create nearly 100,000 jobs. Our amendment would do two things. President obama has failed to do them. Owrnld that im our amendment that im here with senator hoeven to discuss would approve the keystone x. L. Pipeline as well as liquefied natural gas exports to our allies. The Keystone Pipeline has been pending over five and a half years. Over five and a half years. During that time the Obama Administration has conducted five separate environmental reviews of this project. The five environmental reviews in the last five and a half years. And despite this scrutiny, president obama continues to delay approving the keystone x. L. Pipeline. He continues to delay approving a pipeline even though its construction would supportveverr now, that 42, number, thats not my number, mr. President. Those are the job estimates from president obamas own state department. The ploip pipeline keystone x. L. Pipeline has broad bipartisan support throughout the country. A recent Washington Post abc news poll found that 65 of americans support the construction of the keystone x. L. E. Labor unions, such as the plumbers and pipefitters, the building and construnnd construn the union of operating engineers, among others, have all called on the president of the United States to approve the keystone x. L. Pipeline. Just over a year ago, 62 members of the senate voted in favor of the keystone x. L. Pipeline. Now, if the senate is going to extend Unemployment Insurance, it should also help americans get back to work. We should adopt this amendment which approves the keystone x. L. Pipeline. The other part of the amendment deals with approving l. N. G. Exports, liquefied natural gas, exporting to our allies and Strategic Partners. Before getting into the specifics of that, mr. President , i was going to ask my colleague and friend from north dakota, senator hoeven, who has worked closely with those supporters of the keystone x. L. Pipeline, a man who was governor of the state of north dakota during the early discussions of that to have his thoughts and why we think this is important to the economy, to help those people who are unemployed and help getting americans back to work. Mr. Hoeven id like to thank the esteemed senator. The presiding officer the senator from north dakota. Mr. Hoeven thank you, mr. President. Id like to thank the esteemed senator from wyoming for leading this colloquy. Really, our effort here is to address the problem in real terms, address in real terms the problem that the legislation we have on the floor right now, Unemployment Insurance bill, to truly address the problem, which is getting people back to work rather than additional government payments added onto the payments that are already made. What were trying to do is help make sure there is a job to get people back to work, and energy is an Incredible Opportunity to do just that. And so when we talked about this energy legislation, its about producing more energy for our country, but its about jobs, its about Economic Growth, and it is about National Security. So i want to again commend the esteemed senator from wyoming for leading the charge on legislation that would allow us to export liquefied natural gas. We currently consume in the United States on an annual basis about 26 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year, but we produce 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas a year, so were already in a situation where were producing more than we consume. We import some from canada, and were growing in terms of our Domestic Production in states like wyoming, in my home state and others across the country with the shale gas development, were producing more and more natural gas. We need a market for that natural gas, and europe very much needs natural gas so that they are not dependent on russia for their energy. So what were talking about is an opportunity here at home to actually create more Economic Activity and what . Put people to work. Put people back to work. Thats the real solution. And you know what . It doesnt cost the government one penny. Instead, we get revenue. Not from higher taxes but from a growing economy and people going back to work. So when we look at this legislation, we have taken legislation thats led by the senator from wyoming. We have tied it together with keystone legislation that i have submitted. We call it the Energy Security act, and it does those two things. It approves the keystone x. L. Pipeline, a 5. 3 billion investment by private companies in our economy, by the Obama Administrations own estimates. Their state department has said it will create more than 40,000 jobs in the construction phase. We tie that with legislation thats been put forward by the senator from wyoming, which i am extremely pleased to cosponsor. We put those two together, l. N. G. Export with keystone, and we have submitted it we have filed it as amendment number 2891. I therefore ask unanimous consent that it be in order for me to offer my amendment number 2891. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Reed mr. President , reserving my right to object, once again, the underlying legislation is designed to help 2. 6 million americans who need the support. It is a bipartisan amendment, and there is a time and a place to debate all these issues, but i think the time and place now is to move forward and vote on the underlying amendment. Theref