WASHINGTON, DC - The clock continues to tick as President Obama inches closer to his deadline to approve the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline. It has now been 14 days since the president signed a bill requiring him to approve the pipeline within 60 days, unless he determines it is not in the national interest.
Today’s jobs report includes some welcome news, but modest job creation is not enough when millions of Americans are still looking for work. Unemployment is still well above 8 percent, where it has been for the last 35 months. The Keystone XL pipeline is a shovel-ready jobs project that can help jumpstart our weak economy and put Americans back to work almost immediately. Each day the president delays the pipeline is another day a pipefitter or construction worker remains out of a job. Unemployed blue-collar workers, who have been hit particularly hard by this recession, have waited over three years for the president to approve the pipeline so they can get to work. Their patience is wearing thin.
At a recent Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, organized labor witnesses expressed frustration over the president’s delay on the project and explained just how important the pipeline is for workers across America. Watch their stories here:
Featuring:
Brent Booker
Director, Construction Department
Laborers’ International Union of North America
Jeffrey Soth
Assistant Director, Department of Legislative and Political Affairs
International Union of Operating Engineers
David Barnett
Special Representative, Pipe Line Division
United Association of Journeyman and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting
Industry of the United States and Canada, AFL-CIO Pipeline Division
Bruce Burton
International Representative
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
