[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1364]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    KEYSTONE ENERGY DEBATE AND 529S

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, thanks to the bill managers' efforts 
that I just referred to, along with the years-long work undertaken by 
Members on both sides--Senator Hoeven in particular--we expect this 
bipartisan bill to finally pass the Senate.
  We expect the filibuster of good American jobs to soon come to an 
end. That is good news for the Senate. It is even better news for the 
people we represent. It would show their Congress is capable of defying 
the powerful special interests that oppose Keystone so we can get 
things done for the middle class.
  Constructing this infrastructure project would pump literally 
billions of dollars into our economy. It would support thousands of 
jobs, and it would do it all with minimal environmental impact. That is 
according to what we have heard from the President's own State 
Department. So it makes sense to get this bipartisan legislation to the 
President for his signature. We hope he will sign the Keystone jobs 
bill into law. The President should expect more good ideas to head his 
way.
  That is the goal of this new Congress. We want to get Washington 
functioning again, and we want to pass commonsense ideas. The Keystone 
debate is showing how we can do both.
  One other issue. I am certainly glad to see President Obama dropped 
his plan to make it harder for the middle class to save for college 
with 529s. I fought to ensure these plans were tax-free at the Federal 
level. Thanks to this incentive to save, literally millions of 
Americans use 529s to help prepare for college expenses. These are good 
plans that promote responsible savings. I am not sure why President 
Obama would have sought to undermine them in the first place, but it 
certainly is good to see the President coming around to Republicans' 
pro-middle-class view on this matter.

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