Senate set for Thursday Keystone vote

The Senate is set to greenlight its Keystone XL bill on Thursday, just 48 hours after Democrats forced Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to postpone victory on the oil pipeline he has made the GOP’s first priority for 2015.

The final Keystone vote comes after a Wednesday voting marathon and brings Republicans to the edge of success on their first bill of the year. But it’s only an incremental step in their yearslong battle with President Barack Obama over the $8 billion pipeline.


The GOP still lacks the votes to override an imminent veto of its Keystone plan, and House leaders are undecided on whether to take a vote on the Senate version of the bill or to pursue the first bicameral conference talks of the new Congress.

McConnell urged Obama to reconsider his threat to veto the Keystone bill, touting the new Senate’s weekslong debate — which saw more amendment votes than in all of 2014 under Democratic control — as a sign that gridlock in the Capital can ebb.

“We want to get Washington functioning again,” the Kentucky Republican said on the floor. “And we want to pass common-sense ideas. The Keystone debate is showing how we can do both.”

The Senate churned through a dozen amendments from both parties on Wednesday and will weigh several more on Thursday before taking a final vote on legislation that would override Obama’s authority to decide on a permit for Keystone. Only one of those amendments got attached to the bill, but the few changes already made to the Senate’s pipeline measure require the House to make the next move before it goes to Obama’s desk.

The House has not yet settled on whether to vote to approve the Senate’s Keystone bill or go to a conference committee, a House GOP leadership aide wrote by email, speaking candidly on condition of anonymity.

The Senate’s Keystone debate showed a sharp contrast between the collaboration of the bill’s two managers, Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski and her Democratic counterpart, Sen. Maria Cantwell, and the acrimony fueled by both parties’ leaders after Democrats accused McConnell of shutting down debate during a rare late-night session last week.

From Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer to Republican Sen. John Hoeven, praise for Murkowski and Cantwell’s work abounded as the chamber shrugged off its late night fight.

“This is the way the Senate should be moving,” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said on the floor after Murkowski announced a deal to finish up the Keystone debate, adding that “all of us are really appreciative.”

Among the controversial issues the Senate rejected on Wednesday were Murkowski’s amendment to block Obama’s plan to protect part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, Sen. Ted Cruz’s bid to fast-track new natural gas exports and a measure on the government’s role in preparing for the effects of climate change.

Even as the GOP Congress moves ever closer to sending its Keystone plan to the White House, Obama’s administration is making progress of its own toward a final decision on whether the pipeline is in the national interest.

The Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and other federal agencies have until Monday to give the State Department comments on a yearold analysis that found Keystone is unlikely to have a significant environmental impact.