Sen. John Hoeven proposed the amendment during the Senate's 'vote-a-rama.' Keystone wins big in Senate

The Senate issued a symbolic, filibuster-proof endorsement of the Keystone XL pipeline Friday evening, further increasing the pressure on President Barack Obama to green-light the project despite massive resistance from his environmental base.

Seventeen Democrats joined all of the Senate’s Republicans in a 62-37 vote for Sen. John Hoeven’s budget amendment urging approval of TransCanada’s oil pipeline.


Senators also resoundingly defeated, 33-66, an amendment from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) that called for “expeditiously analyzing and making decisions” on the pipeline project. Boxer's proposal included a long list of criteria for the review, including whether the pipeline would increase oil prices, use materials not manufactured in the U.S., affect individual property rights and otherwise “adversely [affect] job creation” and national security.

“Both of these votes make it very clear that the Senate will approve this project if the president doesn’t,” Hoeven (R-N.D.) boasted to reporters afterward.

And Hoeven has reason for optimism.

While the Hoeven amendment is nonbinding and may never even become law, its victory and the lopsided defeat of Boxer’s amendment may signal pent-up frustration over how long the federal review of Keystone has already taken.

House Republicans have been able to get the needed majority support in their chamber to approve the pipeline, in votes stretching back to last Congress, but Friday’s vote gave pipeline supporters a filibuster-proof Senate margin for the first time on language calling for the project’s approval. A binding amendment Hoeven offered last Congress received 56 votes. Hoeven had complained that that vote lost only because of arm-twisting by the White House.

Hoeven joked to reporters Friday that he won this time because Obama was traveling in the Middle East and couldn’t call senators to pressure them to vote against the amendment. “He’s overseas this time so they would have had to be long-distance calls,” he said.

The difference this time was the support of six more Democrats backing Hoeven, including red-state freshmen Sens. Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, whose victories in November helped increase their party’s Senate majority but who side more with Republicans on energy policy.

Other Democrats signed on as well this time — including Delaware Sens. Tom Carper and Chris Coons, and Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Bill Nelson of Florida.

Also voting for Hoeven’s amendment were several red-state Democrats who face reelection in 2014, including Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. They had all supported Hoeven’s effort last Congress as well.

In an example of how important every vote on the Keystone amendment was to the project's supporters, a panicked Hoeven was seen searching for Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) outside the Senate chamber during the vote to make sure he didn't miss it.

"He forgot to vote" initially, Hoeven told reporters afterward, adding that he made sure Vitter cast his vote on time.

Hoeven is separately offering a bipartisan bill that would have Congress approve the pipeline and take the issue out of Obama’s hands. House Republicans are also expected to move legislation from Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), with a sprinkling of Democratic co-sponsors, that would not just bypass Obama but limit judicial review of the project.

Hoeven was cautious about whether his bill would also get 62 votes.

“It depends on how and when we bring the bill, but we’ve established clearly the president needs to make a decision and it needs to be an affirmative decision because the support is here to approve it if he does,” he said.

Boxer implored senators on the floor to support her amendment because “regardless of how you feel on Keystone, these are essential issues that must be addressed.”

But Hoeven countered that Boxer's proposal was an effort to prevent construction of the pipeline and included unreasonable criteria.

Twenty Democrats opposed Boxer.

Climate activists downplayed the impact of the Hoeven vote and called for Obama to disregard it.

"This vague, nonbinding resolution does nothing but show how eager these senators are to please their Big Oil masters," Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said.

“Big Oil may have bought themselves this meaningless vote, but the decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline remains where it’s been all along — with Secretary [of State John] Kerry and President Obama,” League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said.

Adding to the symbolism on Friday, the vote on Hoeven’s amendment came on the one-year anniversary of Obama’s speech at a TransCanada pipe storage yard near Cushing, Okla., where he called for making it a “priority” to expedite approval of Keystone XL’s southern leg. That portion of the project — meant to connect Oklahoma oil storage tanks with refineries in Texas — is now under construction.

Republicans marked the anniversary by poking Obama for failing to approve Keystone’s northern portion, which would bring crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands into the U.S.

“If you recall, the president held a photo op last year to tout his support for the southern part of that pipeline,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a video his office released Friday morning. “The only problem was that section didn’t need his approval. He had nothing to do with it.”

Darius Dixon contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 7:41 p.m. on March 22, 2013.