Dem Sen. Manchin signals bill to build Keystone could have the votes
A Democratic senator suggested Sunday that the Senate might have enough votes to pass a bill compelling the Obama administration to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., noting that 62 senators voted in favor of a Keystone measure last year, said: "I still think that vote is there. I really do."
Manchin discussed the prospects just days after his Senate colleagues introduced a bill to build the Canada-to-Texas pipeline. The difference between the measure approved last year and this one is that last year's was a nonbinding resolution with no real teeth to it.
The new Senate bill would require approval of Keystone. Getting a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority on board with such a bill is a heavier lift for sponsors.
But Manchin said he "would hope" that a few more Democrats would be willing to support it, and even suggested it could be a positive step for the White House.
"We don't want to usurp anyone's power, but if it gives the White House some protection from the environmental community coming after them,
sooner or later you've got to give to the will of the people," Manchin said.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said a vote on a free-standing bill that deals only with the pipeline is insufficient "because it will never see the light of day.
The president's not going to sign it."
Though the approval decision has been described as resting with the State Department, Manchin said Sunday that nobody in Washington believes environmental decisions are being made at that level.
"This is coming strictly from the White House," he said. "That's where it lies. If we had the green light from the White House, this would happen."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05 ... ave-votes/
Seems...there might be a little revolt in the "communist" party.....
