WASHINGTON--The Senate on Monday rejected a procedural motion to
advance legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, prolonging
the chamber's debate over the project.
Amid a partisan fight over congressional procedure and absences
due to weather and other conflicts, Senate Republican leaders
couldn't amass the 60 votes needed to end debate on the bill and
move toward a final vote on approving the pipeline. The procedural
vote was 53-39.
While enough Senate Democrats support the pipeline to clear the
60-vote hurdle, several of them are fuming over a decision last
week by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) to vote
against taking up Democratic amendments and to prevent Democrats
from delivering one-minute floor speeches on their amendments.
Their effort to defeat the motion was helped by absences among
some members who probably would have voted for it.
The Senate is now expected to continue working on the bill this
week, with more amendment votes, and a final passage vote isn't
expected until early next week at the earliest. The legislation has
60 co-sponsors, including six Democrats, so once both parties agree
on how to move forward on the procedure, it is expected to pass and
eventually reach President Barack Obama's desk. The Senate bill is
nearly identical to one passed by the House earlier this month.
Keystone XL, a TransCanada Corp. project, would move as many as
830,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada's oil sands to Steele
City, Neb., where it would connect with existing pipelines to Gulf
Coast refineries. TransCanada first submitted its permit
application in 2008 to the State Department, which oversees
cross-border pipelines. The pipeline has become a proxy for a much
broader debate over the economy and Mr. Obama's efforts to address
climate change.
The White House, citing a continuing review process by the State
Department over the pipeline, has said Mr. Obama would veto the
Senate bill. Neither the House nor the Senate is expected to have
enough votes to override such a veto.
The Democratic anger erupted last week over the amendment
process. Mr. McConnell had already allowed votes on several
Democratic amendments, including votes on climate change that were
politically uncomfortable for Republicans.
But Democrats wanted more time to offer additional amendments,
and their leaders were successful in rallying even some Keystone
supporters to vote against the procedural motion as a protest
against Mr. McConnell, saying he wasn't fulfilling his promise to
open up the Senate floor to a debate over a broad range of
amendments.
Republicans say Democrats had plenty of opportunity to offer
their amendments and had taken advantage of it last week with votes
on amendments covering a number of energy-related topics.
"This is really disappointing," Mr. McConnell said, saying that
Democratic complaints were misleading and that the Senate had
already had more amendment votes on one bill than the Senate had
all of last year.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), who opposes the pipeline, said
five Democrats who had asked to speak for one minute "were told sit
down; we're gagging you."
"This has been anything but an open amendment process," she said
on the Senate floor Monday shortly before voting no.
Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com and Amy Harder
at amy.harder@wsj.com
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