[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3192]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ACT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last night the two parties reached an 
agreement on amendments to the highway bill. As the majority leader 
will indicate shortly, or may already have before I came to the floor, 
we will be able to move forward on that later today.
  I am also happy to report there are a number of strong, very strong, 
job-creating measures in the mix. One that stands out is Senator 
Hoeven's amendment on the Keystone XL Pipeline, that massive private 
sector project that will create 20,000 jobs almost immediately.
  Most Americans strongly support building the pipeline and, of course, 
the significant number of construction jobs that would come along with 
it. It is incomprehensible to me that the President of the United 
States, as I read, is actually lobbying against the Keystone Pipeline 
amendment. There is a report this morning that the President is 
personally making phone calls to Democratic Senators he thinks might 
vote for the amendment, asking them not to. Frankly, it is hard to 
comprehend how completely out of touch he is on this issue.
  Think about it. At a moment when millions are out of work, gas prices 
are literally skyrocketing, and the Middle East is in turmoil, we have 
a President who is up making phone calls trying to block a pipeline 
here at home. It is almost unbelievable. What we are seeing in Congress 
this week is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, you have a 
Republican-controlled House that is about to pass a bipartisan jobs 
bill that would help entrepreneurs and innovators by getting Washington 
out of the way, and today we have a Democratic-controlled Senate trying 
to line up votes against an amendment that would create jobs, and a 
Democratic President lobbying against the biggest private sector job 
creation project in our country.
  We have an opportunity to work together to create jobs. We can do 
that with these amendments and we can do that by taking up the 
bipartisan jobs bill the House will pass later today.
  Let me say a word about that. The bipartisan jobs bill the House will 
pass later today is supported by the President. It is ready to go. I 
hope that once it gets over to the Senate we will simply take it up and 
pass it. It is an example of a measure supported by Republicans and 
Democrats and the President that we believe will clear the House with a 
very large majority. I think the sooner we pass that here in the Senate 
and send it down to the President for signature, the better.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.

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