Boehner: House Will Likely Attach Keystone Approval to New Jobs Bill
Speaker John Boehner says that the House will try again to tie approval for the Keystone pipeline project to a new jobs bill being introduced next week.
"All options are on the table. If it's not enacted before we take up the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, it'll be part of it," Boehner said of the Keystone project, which would extend an oil pipeline from Canada through the United States.
Boehner led an unsuccessful effort to attach approval of the Keystone project to the extension of the payroll tax cut in December, but had to back down after not securing Senate support.
The Obama administration declined approval for the pipeline extension after saying they did not have enough time to study the environmental impact, drawing criticism from conservatives who say the project would create needed jobs.
"Now that the president has decided for political reasons that we're not going to move ahead just yet, not until after the election… we're going to have to find another way to lean on the Senate, to take this issue up, because the Keystone pipeline will create … over 100,000 indirect jobs," Boehner told me on "This Week."
"This is the epitome of a shovel-ready job project that the president ought to be approving," Boehner added. "And if he won't, then let's let the Congress approve it."
While Republicans will likely tie the Keystone project to the new jobs bill, Boehner said that "there will be no earmarks in this bill."
"One of our great successes of last year is that we passed all these bills, done good work, working with the Senate, with no earmarks," Boehner said.