Sen. Cramer Joins Newsmax to Discuss Infrastructure Negotiations, Nord Stream 2

Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), joined Sean Spicer and Lyndsay Keith on Newsmax last night to discuss the latest on the bipartisan infrastructure package negotiations and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Earlier this week Senator Cramer called out President Joe Biden’s decision to allow the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be completed. The senator is leading the Protecting Our Well-being by Expanding Russian Sanctions (POWERS) Act, a bill to build on recently-passed bipartisan sanctions against Russia and reinstate sanctions the Biden Administration is waiving on Russian people and entities involved in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Learn more here.

Excerpts and a link to the full interview are below.

On Infrastructure:

“The formula for distributing highway funds is long and traditional. It recognizes the miles of highway as well as the population. You might imagine that’s important to a state like North Dakota. It has a reasonable 90/10 split between states getting 90 percent and the other 10 percent for grants. Competitive grants are very important to rural states. We have some permitting reform in the bill that passed out of the [Senate Environment and Public Works] Committee that would be part of this. I want to make sure that remains intact. A framework doesn’t tell us enough. It doesn’t tell me enough to be confident to say I would vote for it today. My hope is that it becomes a good enough bill that I can vote for it. I think it would be good to have a good infrastructure bill.”

On Nord Stream 2:

“The beautiful thing about building pipelines in the United States of America is it’s more environmentally friendly, it creates American jobs, and it doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything. The private sector would gladly pay for more energy infrastructure. Not to mention the obvious problem with Russia having a greater lock on the energy supply for Europe. The European Union Parliament has overwhelmingly voted to oppose the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Several countries in Europe, of course, are very concerned, particularly the some of the Nordic states and the Baltic states. They’d rather have our cleaner, abundant low-cost natural gas than to get it be a pipeline from Vladimir Putin.”

On American Leadership in Energy:

“Our ally Poland is captive to Vladimir Putin for their natural gas. That’s a national security problem for them. That means that they can’t torque off Vladimir Putin in Russia. That’s true of Ukraine and a whole bunch of other countries in that neighborhood all along the Baltic sea. … While we’re helping protect them from Vladimir Putin, they’re becoming more captive to monopoly that is Vladimir Putin. … When [Joe Biden] suppresses energy development in the United States of America but enhances it in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and – of course – Russia, that’s not leadership. That’s acquiescence.”