The pipeline bill would double to $2 million the maximum fine for safety violations Oops! Wrong pipeline bill passed

It was a celebrated, bipartisan achievement: Congress sent the president a bill to address pipeline safety issues — a sign that lawmakers could get beyond the bitter partisanship that has slowed down nearly everything in this divided Congress.

And still they managed to at least temporarily muck things up.


Due to human error, the House on Monday and Senate on Tuesday both passed a pipeline safety bill all right, but an earlier version of the bill — not the final bipartisan, bicameral compromise.

“There was a House clerical error and we expect the correcting resolution to be approved in the House and Senate without issue,” said Caley Gray, a spokesman for Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who was a lead author of Senate pipeline safety legislation this year. The Senate was the one that discovered the error, Gray added.

The House by unanimous consent late Wednesday agreed to the version they meant to approve Monday; the Senate is expected to quickly follow suit.

The measure moved swiftly following multiple high-profile accidents, including a deadly explosion last year in San Bruno, Calif., which killed eight and injured many others. A more recent accident was in July when an Exxon Mobil pipeline dumped an estimated 1,000 barrels in Yellowstone River.

The bill would double to $2 million the maximum fine for safety violations, increase the number of pipeline inspectors and require automatic shutoff valves on new or replaced pipelines “where economically, technically and operationally feasible.''

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 7:33 p.m. on December 14, 2011.