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Rep. Kelly Supports Keystone Pipeline, Looks Ahead to Pro-Growth Tax Reform

May 23, 2013

WASHINGTON — Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, issued the following statement today in support of H.R. 3, the Northern Route Approval Act, which was passed yesterday evening by the House of Representatives. The legislation would clear away the roadblocks preventing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Rep. Kelly also voiced support for implementing comprehensive pro-growth tax reform in order to jumpstart the economy, boost job creation, and make the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) more accountable.

“The construction of the Keystone pipeline should have been green-lighted a time long ago. It is safe, it is bipartisan, it will create thousands of jobs, and it will bring greater energy security to America. It is beyond frustrating that the Obama administration has now let special interest politics put this commonsense project on pause for more than 1,700 days. While my colleagues and I cannot force President Obama to change his mind on the matter, yesterday’s legislation would tear down the legal and regulatory walls standing in the way of the pipeline finally being built. With 40,000 construction-related jobs waiting to be created for American workers, there is simply no justification for delaying this project a single day longer.

“While H.R. 3 deals with the walls blocking the Keystone pipeline, one of the greatest hurdles to widespread job creation for Americans remains our overly complex and outdated tax code — a 70,000-page spider web almost five times as long as the Bible. There is something seriously wrong when the code by which we live is dwarfed by the code by which we are taxed. It is hampering the economic revival that our nation could be experiencing and costing taxpayers too much time and far too much money. Pro-growth tax reform is the only answer, and it is long overdue. In order to have a smaller and more accountable IRS, our country must have a smaller and simpler tax code for it to manage.”

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