WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) today issued the following statement after voting to create jobs by moving the Keystone XL Pipeline project forward. The bill to approve the pipeline, S. 2280, fell one vote short of the sixty votes needed for passage.

“The Keystone Pipeline proposal has been studied to death. Every box has been checked. Our friends to the north are moving ahead with or without us. It is a shame that the administration and some of my colleagues are choosing the latter,” Boozman said. “The good news is we should be able to pass this job creating bill when the Republicans take control of the Senate in the coming year.”

Earlier today, Boozman spoke on the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to pass the bill after six years of delay.

During his speech, Boozman highlighted the economic benefits of the Keystone XL Pipeline.

“This project will bolster the American economy—and Arkansas’s—once we move it forward,” Boozman said. “In my home state of Arkansas, Nucor Steel in Blytheville and Welspun Tubular in Little Rock are two companies that should be employing people to work on pipe for the project right now. These are two communities in my home state that would have already benefitted from the project if the President had not been stalling the approval of the Keystone pipeline.”