Lee Terry: “I'm the author of one of the bills sitting in the Senate, the ``forgotten 15.'' This is a bill that will instantaneously…”

“I'm the author of one of the bills sitting in the Senate, the ``forgotten 15.'' This is a bill that will instantaneously create 20,000 jobs and spin off a potential 100,000 to 200,000 additional jobs and put us on the path to energy security. I'm talking about the pipeline bill, the Keystone XL pipeline. Now, that bill was passed on a massive bipartisan vote, 279-174, one of the best bipartisan showings of nonsuspension bills. It was placed on the Senate calendar on July 28. We held a press conference asking the Senate to take it up. We sent a bipartisan letter to the majority leader asking him to place it on the calendar for vote. This bill just simply set a timeline for the President and State Department to make a decision. Then, it was November 1. We sit here on this day, November 4--I think it's the 4th--and the President just said 2 days ago to a local Omaha TV station anchorman that he'll make a decision in a few months. Well, I would encourage the Senate to take up this bill; change the date, obviously, maybe to December 1 or December 15 or December 31. But the reality is this permit for this pipeline is 1,142 days old. That's double the record time for any other transcontinental pipeline--double. Yes, there is a political storm about environmental safety. This trans-Canadian pipeline has been studied more than any other pipeline.…”