12.16.14

Hoeven Statement on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's Plan to Make Keystone XL First Order of Business in New Congress

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven today issued the following statement in response to the plan to make Hoeven's Keystone XL approval legislation the first order of business in the 114th Congress:

“Leader McConnell announced today that my Keystone XL approval bill will be the first order of business in the new Congress. He has also indicated that we will take it up in regular order, with an open amendment process and debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate. By going to regular order and allowing amendments, we hope to build bipartisan support on this and other legislation to get the work of the Senate done.

“Over the course of the last six years, as both a governor and a senator, I have worked to build bipartisan support for the Keystone XL pipeline. The project is in the national interest of our country and the American people. It will create good jobs for our citizens, boost economic activity in our states and generate revenues for our communities.

“It is needed infrastructure to move our oil from the Bakken to refineries in the United States, as well as to move oil from Canada. We need to build infrastructure like the Keystone XL pipeline so that we can move energy safely and effectively as part of a comprehensive energy plan for the nation. It will make our country more secure and energy independent because we will be getting more oil domestically and from our closest friend and ally Canada and less oil from the Middle East and other hostile regions of the world.”

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