

President Trump signed executive actions on Tuesday that will pave the way for the construction of a pair of pipeline projects that withered under his predecessor, as well as several other orders that could make the construction of other pipelines easier.Two of the actions Trump signed Monday authorized the Keystone XL Pipeline project and the Dakota Access pipeline project. Both were controversial projects in the Obama administration due to their environmental impact.Trump signed another action addressing the "tangled-up mess" of permitting, promising to "streamline" the process.Another action will expedite environmental reviews for businesses, Trump said. In keeping with his focus on "America First" policies, Trump mandated that U.S. pipelines be built with U.S. steel.

"If we build it in the United States, build the pipelines, we want to build the pipe," Trump said. "It's going to put a lot of workers, a lot of steelworkers back to work."

The five actions came on the heels of Trump's decision one day earlier to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that had become politically toxic amid opposition from both parties.

Trump has spent the first two workdays of his administration meeting with business and labor leaders and implementing policies aimed at creating jobs. At the same time, he has concentrated on executive actions that will stall the implementation of Obama-era policies, such as a regualtory freeze for all federal agencies and a suspension of hiring at most federal agencies.

Republicans met Trump's executive actions on Tuesday with praise.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said of the renewed construction plans for the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines: "It's about time."

Most of Trump's actions on Tuesday came in the form of memoranda to federal agencies.

For example, he instructed his secretary of commerce, who has not yet been confirmed, to "develop a plan" that would require new, updated or expanded pipeline projects to use American steel and equipment "to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law."

On the Keystone XL project, which former President Obama formally rejected in Nov. 2015, Trump invited TransCanada, the Canadian company that sought permission to build the controversial portion of the pipe, to reapply for the project.

Only one of the five actions Trump signed Tuesday came in the form of an executive order: his push to speed up environmental reviews for "high priority infrastructure projects."