Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stood by the debt ceiling deal including measures to speed up approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, arguing the project has “been reviewed thoroughly.”

“It’s just time to move on,” Manchin said, referring to the several delays the project has faced in recent years. “The product is needed in America,” Manchin added during an interview on West Virginia MetroNews’s Talkline.

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The proposed 300-mile natural gas pipeline would stretch throughout West Virginia and Virginia and is intended to be fully built by 2023. However, the project has experienced several delays.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the pipeline the green light in 2017, and Manchin introduced legislation to finish the $6.6 billion pipeline project last summer, gaining support from the White House after he promised to support the Inflation Reduction Act of 2023.

Twenty amendments have been proposed to the debt ceiling legislation, according to CBS News. While most of the amendments are from the GOP, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) moved to strip the pipeline project from the legislation.

Kaine’s spokesperson said he’s “extremely disappointed by the provision of the bill” because the pipeline bypasses “the normal judicial and administrative review process every other energy project has to go through.”

“I respectfully disagree with him,” Manchin said in response.

Manchin said there has not been a pipeline built in America “that has ever gone through the scrutiny that the MVP has.” Manchin noted that the pipeline has been reviewed nine times before the courts, with the “same three judges" sending the project back "every time."

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Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) also spoke on Talkline, saying she supports the pipeline and that it was a No. 1 priority.

Manchin applauded House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Joe Biden’s debt ceiling deal, saying “both sides, Democrats and Republicans did their job.”