Griffin: President’s Pipeline Delay Is Killing Jobs in Arkansas

Update 6:14 PM: The House passed H.R. 3630 (234-193) which included $202.4 billion to cover extending the two-percent payroll tax cut for one year, preventing a tax increase on every working American. The bill would reform the unemployment insurance program by lifting the ban on drug testing, decreasing the number of weeks of eligibility from 99 to 59 and require certain recipients enroll in a GED program if they have not finished high school. It also would provide a two-year fix to the Medicare reimbursement rate for physicians to ensure seniors continue to have access to quality health And, the bill also required speeding up the approval of a Canadian pipeline by creating the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline that would stretch to Texas. This pipeline doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime and unlike the stimulus bill, which relied on vague promises of jobs “saved or created,” the pipeline would create 20,000 direct job and 100,000 indirect jobs.

Sen. Harry Reid has said that he and Senate Democrats will kill the bill in the Senate. And. President Obama has promised if Reid doesn't succeed then he would veto this bill.

Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) responded after the passage of the bill about the impact on Arkansas if it becomes law, "The President’s delayed decision on the Keystone Pipeline has already cost Arkansas jobs at Welspun Tubular in Little Rock, and further delays could risk the opportunity for the U.S. economy to create 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs through this project. Further, it is estimated that the Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rules, as written, could cost Arkansas’s economy over $338 million and put more than 5,400 Arkansans out of work."
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House to vote later today to force the President to decide on Keystone XL’s future

Rep. Tim Griffin

WASHINGTON – Congressman Tim Griffin (AR-02) issued the following statement after learning that employees at Welspun Tubular in Little Rock, AR were laid off because of delays in the Keystone XL Pipeline project:

“Welspun is laying off workers in Arkansas because the President refuses to decide on the future of the Keystone XL Pipeline until after the next election.  I don’t agree with Big Labor bosses on much, but even they understand that the President’s political posturing on this issue is costing us jobs at a time when far too many Americans are still out of work.  Arkansas workers cannot wait another year for the President to make a decision.  That is why the House will vote today on a bill that will require him to make a decision on the pipeline within 60 days of enactment.  The President should put all of our governmental resources into approving this pipeline. Arkansas workers are counting on it.”

Last month, Rep. Griffin led a group of House Members in urging the President to stop putting politics over paychecks when it comes to approving the Keystone XL Pipeline permits.  Learn more about that event, as well as Griffin’s prior efforts on this issue, here.

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