Joe Barton: “I thank the distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee. First of all, let's try to define what this bill actually…”

“I thank the distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee. First of all, let's try to define what this bill actually does. We have had a lot of rhetoric on the House floor the last 30 minutes or so. It is a pretty simple bill. It removes the President from the decisionmaking authority. He can sign the bill and it would become law; he cannot sign it after so many days and it can become law; or he can veto it--but he doesn't have to make the decision whether to build the pipeline or not. That is the first thing. It takes the President out of the decisionmaking loop, except for the fact that he has the option as the President of the United States to sign the bill into law, veto it, or to let it become law without his signature. Secondly, it says that if the bill does become law and the environmental groups still want to contest it, you get expedited judicial review so that we immediately get a decision. That is what the bill does. It is a simple bill. A lot of the Keystone pipeline has already been built. From some of the rhetoric on the floor, you would think that it hadn't even been started yet. The reason the State Department and the President are even in the loop is because it is an international pipeline. Having said that, the international part of it has been built. The connection between Canada and the United States has been built and is operational. The part that is in question is within the interior of the United States of America.…”