Congressional Recap: Keystone XL Pipeline Heads To President For Expected Veto

The following is a recap of congressional news this week:

KEYSTONE PASSES HOUSE
The House voted 270-152 Wednesday to approve Senate Bill 1, involving the Keystone XL pipeline.

The bill received support from Reps. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, French Hill, R-Little Rock, Steve Womack, R-Rogers, and Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs.

Womack said the bill should be signed into law.

“It has been six long years since the initial Keystone application was submitted. Americans are ready to build, and the House has shown time-and-time again that we are ready, too. Today’s passage of S. 1 not only supports jobs creation and an all-of-the-above energy policy critical to America’s success by finally approving the Keystone XL, but it also marks the turning of a page towards smart, bipartisan workings with the newly-led Senate,” Womack said. President Obama has no more excuses, and I urge him to work with us and sign this commonsense, bipartisan bill into law.”

Opponents of the bill have cited environmental concerns, while President Obama has threatened to veto the legislation.

The bill passed by a 62-36 margin in the Senate Jan. 29, with Boozman and Cotton voting yes.

The $5.4 billion Keystone XL Pipeline project would carry crude oil over a 1,179 mile stretch from Alberta, Canada through the Midwest to the Texas Gulf Coast.

The margins of passage in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate fall short of a two-thirds majority needed to overturn a Presidential veto despite GOP control of both chambers.

COTTON: ‘LETHAL WEAPONRY’ FOR UKRAINIANS
The state’s junior senator criticized reports of a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine, saying the deal placates Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“The cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia is yet another victory for Vladimir Putin’s revanchist campaign against the West. The terms are almost identical to the failed cease-fire from last September that only emboldened Russia,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said. “Now, Putin has killed more innocent people and seized more territory and will get greater autonomy for eastern Ukraine, in exchange for nothing more than promising to keep his already-broken promises.”

In a statement, Cotton, who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said the Obama administration should work to arm Ukraine.

“Regrettably, we’re here today largely because of President Obama’s appeasement of Putin, which started the moment President Obama took office and continues today. His failure to support our allies has repeatedly empowered Russia and undermined American interests, from Ukraine to Syria to Egypt and points in between,” Cotton said. “The United States should move immediately to provide lethal weaponry to Ukraine and President Obama must stop accommodating Vladimir Putin before he threatens our NATO allies and further destabilizes Europe.”

BOOZMAN, COTTON SPONSOR ENERGY BILL
A bill introduced Wednesday would restore the right of states to approve or disapprove of electric transmission projects before the federal government exercises its power to take private property.

Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., filed the Assuring Private Property Rights Over Vast Access to Lands, or APPROVAL, act.

The bill would require that the U.S. Department of Energy receive the approval of both the governor and the public service commission of an affected state, before exercising the federal power of eminent domain to acquire property for Section 1222 transmission projects.

For projects on tribal lands, DOE would have to receive the approval of the impacted tribal government.

“When a road, pipeline or power line is built the use of eminent domain is sadly unavoidable in some cases,” Boozman said. “However, this difficult decision should not be in the hands of Washington bureaucrats. If a project is not good for Arkansas, our governor or public service commission should have the power to say ‘no.’”

In addition to allowing states the ability to reject the use of federal eminent domain for a project, the legislation would ensure to the extent possible, that approved projects are placed on federal land rather than on private land.

Specifically, for approved projects, DOE would be required to the maximum extent possible to site projects on existing rights-of-way and federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, both senators said.

One catalyst for the proposed legislation centers on the Department of Energy’s current request for comments on the Plains & Eastern Clean Line Transmission Project, which would go through Arkansas, if approved.

WESTERMAN FILES FIRST BILL
Westerman filed a bill late Wednesday to provide states the flexibility to create workforce requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients.

“During my time in the Arkansas General Assembly, I came to realize that while I was attempting to do what was best for my state house district, my hands were often tied by the laws and regulations put in place at the federal level,” Westerman said of House Resolution 886. “The goal of the State Flexibility and Workforce Requirement Act of 2015 is not to create a work requirement in Arkansas. The goal is simply to give my former colleagues in Little Rock the freedom to self-govern and set their own requirements for those able-bodied individuals seeking Medicaid assistance. If states are the ones administering the benefit to their citizens, who are we in the federal government to tell them yes or no when it comes to the specific rules they may want to set?”

Crawford, Hill and Womack are also co-sponsors for the legislation.