House approves Keystone bill, as court ruling delivers win to pipeline backers

[Valin]

Fox News:

January 09, 2015

 

The House easily passed a bill on Friday authorizing construction of the Keystone pipeline, just hours after Nebraska's highest court tossed a lawsuit challenging the route -- increasing pressure on President Obama to approve the long-delayed project.

The House approved the bill on a 266-153 vote, with 28 Democrats joining majority Republicans in voting for it. The Senate is set to consider the legislation next week, and sponsors say it has more than enough support to pass.

 

But the White House is threatening to veto. And even though the Nebraska court case was one of the reasons the administration has been reluctant to act, the ruling earlier Friday did little to change the president's position.

 

(Snip)

 

"President Obama is out of excuses for deciding whether or not to allow thousands of Americans to get back to work," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement, urging Obama to reverse his veto threat in light of the court decision.

House Speaker John Boehner made the same appeal, saying "a presidential veto would put [Obama's] own political interests ahead of the needs and priorities of the American people."

Earlier, in a victory for pipeline backers, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that three landowners who sued failed to show they had legal standing to bring their case.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

The big problem with Obama's veto threats

Americans are sick of gridlock and many no longer care whose fault it is

Matt K. Lewis

Jan. 9 2015

 

Barack Obama ran as a hope-and-change candidate who was going to forget about red states and blue states and have us all singing "kumbaya" together on some make-believe hilltop in the Land of Post-Partisanship. Those dreams are long since dashed as the president's critics on both sides acknowledge. But we got yet another reminder about the president's inability to bridge partisan divides this week, when White House press secretary Josh Ernest declared, "If this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn't sign it."

 

He was referring to the Keystone XL pipeline.

 

This project has been mired in controversy and delay for years. But it actually has supporters on both sides of the aisle, including labor unions on the left and free-market conservatives on the right. It's largely just liberal environmentalists who are pressuring Democrats to hold things up.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Democrats’ First Act of Obstruction
Now is the winter of our procedural discontent
Amy Miller
Friday, January 9, 2015

 

Yesterday, Senate Republicans attempted a procedural fast-track on the bipartisan Keystone XL jobs and infrastructure bill. The goal, according to * Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), was to immediately begin processing amendments to the controversial bill with the end goal of getting it to the President as soon as possible.

 

McConnell asked for unanimous consent to proceed with consideration of the bill, noting that amendments would be accepted from both sides of the aisle. The problem? Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) objected.

 

Instead of being able to move forward immediately, Leader McConnell was forced to file cloture on the motion to proceed with the bill; this means that unless Senator Whitehouse drops his objection, the next vote on the bill will have to wait until 5:30 on Monday.

 

What a petty start to the 114th Congress.....(Snip)

 

 

 

* That would be the evil Tea Party Hating Establishment Sell Out Mitch McConnell (RINO-KY)

[Valin]

Do Senate Republicans have the votes to override Obama on Keystone?
T. Becket Adams
January 11, 2015 | 3:35 pm

 

epublican lawmakers sounded hopeful Sunday when asked whether they have enough votes in the U.S. Senate to override President Obama’s veto threat on the Keystone XL pipeline project.

 

Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and John Hoeven of North Dakota were asked separately on Sunday morning whether the Republican-controlled Senate can garner votes to work around Obama’s veto threat on Keystone, a project that has been held up by federal authorities for the past six years.

 

“We don't know, exactly, how the [House’s Keystone] bill will come out of the Senate. As you know, the new majority leader … has pledged an open process where anybody with a good idea can offer that and get a vote on it in the Senate,” Cornyn answered immediately after CBS News’ Bob Schieffer asked him whether Republicans have the votes. “But right now, on the Keystone XL pipeline, we know there is bipartisan group of roughly 63 senators who support that.”

 

(Snip)