[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 13, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S159-S160]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Democrats and Republicans cooperated 
last night to bring the Keystone Pipeline another step closer to 
construction. Thanks to that bipartisan cloture vote, the Senate can 
finally begin an open floor debate on this committee-vetted and 
approved legislation.
  It is a debate many of us have actually been looking forward to--and 
not just because of the substance of what we are considering. But we 
have also been waiting a long time to have a debate where individual 
Senators actually matter again, which is why earlier I suggested that 
our colleagues on the other side of the aisle allow us to get on the 
bill and let us offer amendments. This is going to be an open process, 
but as I indicated, not an open-ended process.
  This is a debate where Senators can offer amendments and have them 
considered by the Senators. It is a debate where Senators can make the 
voices of their constituents heard. That is just the kind of serious 
legislating many of us have been waiting a long time for, and the fact 
that we are finally seeing it today is a direct consequence of our 
constituents' calls for a functioning Congress. It is the latest 
example of the new Republican majority putting Congress back to work.
  Getting Congress back to work means working to pass legislation that 
is good for jobs and for the middle class, and that is why we are 
focused on getting measures such as the bipartisan infrastructure bill 
over to the President's desk.
  Even though he may not sign it--and we all know that he may not sign 
everything we pass--we are getting the Congress out of the business of 
protecting the President from good ideas. That is our commitment to the 
American people.
  When it comes to the bipartisan Keystone bill, it is hard to see a 
serious reason why President Obama would

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veto these jobs anyway. The Nebraska Supreme Court just cleared away 
the last pretense many of us could imagine. So we hope President Obama 
will listen to the American people, and we hope in the end, after due 
consideration, he will decide to sign it. But, no matter, we will not 
be dissuaded from our path of working for the middle class. The new 
Republican Congress is not going to stop working for more jobs and more 
opportunity.
  Let's get the debate started. Let's see what Members of both parties 
can accomplish by actually working together, and let's continue trying 
to pass as many good ideas as we can, starting with this bipartisan 
jobs and infrastructure bill.
  I yield the floor.

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