On the recordMay 22, 2013
I thank Chairman Denham for yielding me this time, and I want to commend Chairman Shuster and the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Terry) for bringing this bill to the floor at this time. This is a very important bill. As Speaker Boehner said on the floor yesterday, it would create 20,000 direct jobs and about 100,000 indirect jobs. The State Department estimated 42,100 direct jobs, and these are American jobs. We have millions of people--too many millions--who are unemployed, Mr. Chairman, and many millions more who are underemployed, who are having to work at jobs far below their skills, talents, and abilities. This will create good American jobs. There would be 830,000 barrels of oil a day being piped down. By itself, maybe it wouldn't bring down gas prices, but it certainly would keep OPEC and some of these other foreign energy producers from raising their prices as fast as they surely would like to and have done in the past. I can tell you that, if we don't pass this bill and similar bills to increase energy production in this country, all we're going to be doing is helping OPEC and other foreign energy producers. It's time we start putting our own people, our own workers first, start putting our own country first again; and we need to pass this bill to help in that process.
