Washington, D.C. -

On Congress’s first full-day back in session, twenty-Nine GOP Freshmen lawmakers gathered outside the United States Capitol building to call on the President to challenge the United States Senate to pass a federal budget.  Georgia’s 8^th District Congressman, Austin Scott, who is also the president of the GOP Freshman class, remarked at Wednesday’s press conference, “Sen. Reid would like to say that Freshmen Republicans are responsible for the gridlock in Washington, but that’s simply not true.  We’ve passed a budget.  We’ve passed twenty-seven jobs bills.  We stand willing to allow the process to work.  Sen. Reid has closed the door at every opportunity.”

Next Tuesday, President Obama will deliver his annual State of the Union address to Congress.  Coincidentally, that day will also mark 1,000 days that the country has been operating without a budget.  To that point, Rep. Scott further commented, “The future of America is bright, but without a budget, the state of our Union is uncertain.  We’re here simply to ask the President to challenge Harry Reid and the Senate to pass a Budget—pass a budget so that the job creators in America have some certainty and can go out there and do what Americans want to do and that’s get back to work.”

Wednesday’s event occurred just as President Obama announced that he is denying the application for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline – a project that is projected to bring in more than 100,000 American jobs.  Upon hearing the news from a reporter in attendance, Rep. Scott responded, “That’s absolutely ridiculous.” He went on to say, “The bottom line is the only way to break this country’s dependency on…oil from the mid-East is to bring things like the Keystone pipeline in from Canada and to start drilling here in America.  I think the fact of the matter is, if the President rejects that, I think he is absolutely out of touch with America and what it takes to get this economy back on track.” 

In the days leading up to next week’s State of the Union address and the 1,000 days milestone, House GOP Freshmen plan to utilize new media to encourage their constituents to reach out to the President about the need for a federal budget.