Congress Fast-Tracks Keystone XL Pipeline
A very overly political move in both chambers of Congress is happening right now. The House of Representatives pushed forward the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline last week. The Senate is planning to vote tomorrow on whether or not to approve the pipeline. President Obama has given many indications that he will veto the bill when he gets it. At this moment, both houses lack the two-thirds majority to override a presidential veto, at least during the rest of this year and the lame-duck session.
However, Senate Majority Leader Reid plans to go forward with the vote to allow the struggling incumbent senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana, a chance to vote for the approval of the pipeline and boost her numbers in the runoff election for her Senate seat. Hopefully next year will be a different story for Keystone XL pipeline. Maybe one which does not involve such silly political games and one that shows a rigorous debate on approval of the pipeline and a decent chance to pass it without the threat of a presidential veto.
Nothing more than some silly grandstanding to help a candidate who is struggling!
Redefining the phrase “Pipe dream.”
The cost of congress (salaries for Congressmen, and support staff mainly) has been estimated to be as high as 5 million dollars per day… Games like this is part of the reason why the private sector will continue to outperform the public sector.
operational expenses are second on this list as far as Congress’ expenditures.