Joe Barton

Currently our oil and gas sector is creating about 9 million jobs a year and sending in taxes more than $30 billion to the Federal Treasury every year.

I am a supporter of free markets and a robust American energy policy.

It wouldn't be the end of the world if the environmental community broke down and actually supported a positive energy-production bill.

There is hope. We might actually burst out in bipartisanship on LNG exports.

I don't think we are going to build 19 LNG export facilities.

In reclaiming my time, Mr. Chairman, before I yield back, I want to thank my staff member Emmanual Guillory. He has worked tirelessly on this issue and on this amendment. I also want to thank Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts and his…

(Mr. BARTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: At the end of the bill, add the following new section: SEC. 4. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION RELATING TO CONSUMER…

I want to apologize to the chairman and the ranking member and our esteemed witness for not being here to hear the opening treatment.

I was puzzled as I listened to you evade the answer to the chairman's questions about when you learned.

The FDA, the agency responsible for protecting the public health and safety, did not act properly.

The company involved acted negligently and didn't follow proper sterilization and sanitation practices.

Job one for the FDA is making sure the medicines we take are safe, but this mission seemed to be lost.

It is our job at this committee to also take a hard look at the agency under our jurisdiction, the FDA, and ask: did its processes work?

It boggles most people's minds when they look at this from a commonsense perspective and say why does the President continue to say no to Keystone?

The Keystone pipeline should have been approved years ago.

I would hope that we would schedule a vote and bring it to the floor and let's get it out of committee and get to the floor and have a vote and send it to the Senate.

I don't think it is a secret that I am a proponent and supporter of the Keystone pipeline, so it is somewhat redundant for me to ask too many questions.

I would like to thank my friend Ed Whitfield and his subcommittee's tireless efforts to break the administration's four-year long impasse and approve Keystone XL.

Even the Obama administration's State Department concluded in its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that the project poses minimal environmental risks.

By those standards, I am happy to say H.R. 3 passes the test overwhelmingly.

It is time for Congress to come together and help make Keystone a reality by approving the Northern Route Approval Act.

But these jobs can't happen unless Keystone XL gets built.

As policymakers, our job is to ensure America can take full advantage of our nation's valuable resources by unlocking the power of our innovators and entrepreneurs.

Our most vulnerable cannot afford these prices on top of an already weak economy that only created 88,000 jobs last month.