Tim Walz: “I thank the ranking member for the time. I also thank him for his longtime commitment to American energy independence.…”

“I thank the ranking member for the time. I also thank him for his longtime commitment to American energy independence. I, too, share that. I have been the supporter of a bipartisan energy bill that brought environmental groups and The Heritage Foundation together and said maybe we can find some solutions to this. I have been a supporter of this project from the beginning. The problem is, today, this bill has nothing to do with that. It has to do with politics. Today is an example of why this body is less popular than hepatitis amongst the American public. It's not only not going to do anything; it's going to set us back. Many of us want this project done, but I have to tell you that the worst thing we can do is build this and have a problem with it. We hear about the number of pages of regulations that are there. Maybe we needed a couple more with BP, and we wouldn't have been cleaning up after that mess. You don't have to choose between building it and compromising safety. You do it right if we're going to do it. Unfortunately, that's not what we're doing. You deem it, and you give away those rights. It's personal for me. I grew up in the Nebraska Sandhills. It was the good people of Nebraska and the Republican Governor who told us to step back, to slow down, and to pick a different route--and finished it in January of this year. So when you hear about all of the process, process gets it right.…”