Republicans Fail In Attempt To Override Keystone XL Veto
Credit: Gage Skidmore
March 5, 2015

Just a reminder: Obama vetoed Keystone because of the legislation, not on its merits. We'll have to wait and see what happens later:

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate failed to override President Barack Obama’s veto of a bill forcing approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, a setback for Republicans who’ve made building the $8 billion U.S.-Canada oil link a legislative priority.

Eight Democrats joined 54 Republicans in voting to overturn the veto, short of the two-thirds super majority needed. Obama said he opposed the bill because it would circumvent his administration’s review, now in its sixth year.

Prior to the vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said the decision to build Keystone was “a no-brainer.”

“The real question here is whether we’re going to allow Keystone’s energy to help support middle-class jobs in America, or whether we’ll allow those jobs and energy to potentially be sent to high-polluting countries like China,” McConnell said.

It was the second major loss this week for Republicans, who control both the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also failed to repeal Obama’s immigration policies as part of a spending bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security after Democrats objected.

The vote was nearly identical to the Jan. 29 Senate vote to approve the bill. Democrats voting to override were Michael Bennet of Colorado, Tom Carper of Delaware, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana and Mark Warner of Virginia.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon