Payroll Tax Cut And Keystone Pipeline Pipeline Get Two Months Consideration

Today in Washington, D.C. - Dec. 17, 2011: [Senate is in Session]
This morning the Senate voted 89-10 for the agreement extending the payroll tax cut for 2 months, paid for with spending cuts and GSE (Fannie & Freddie) fees, and requiring the president to decide on the Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days.

The Senate then voted 72-27 to pass H.R. 3972, a bill funding FEMA for disaster recovery. But majority Senate Democrats voted down H. Con. Res. 94, a package of spending cuts offsetting the disaster funding.

Finally, the Senate has began begun discussions and voting on the conference report for H.R. 2055, the vehicle for the omnibus appropriations bill that funds the government through the end of the current fiscal year (Sept. 30, 2012).

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted 296-121 to pass the conference report for H.R. 2055.

Last night, Democrats gave in to demands from Republicans,championed by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, that any payroll tax cut extension must include a provision expediting a decision from President Obama on the Keystone XL pipeline.

As Politico recounts, “[D]uring a marathon day of closed-door negotiations on Friday, Senate Republicans won a major concession: The compromise package includes a provision prodding Obama to make a decision on the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, which has pitted two traditional Democratic backers - organized labor and environmental groups - against one another. Obama had tried to push a decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 elections, but Republicans, sensing an opening, demanded the president act sooner.”

Recall that at the beginning of the month, Senate Democrats were demanding tax increases on job creators accompanying a payroll tax cut and President Obama actually threatened to veto a bill including the Keystone XL language as recently as last week. Yet the bill the Senate passed this morning both includes the pipeline provision and contains not one dime in tax increases.

Writing at Townhall.com, Guy Benson calls the inclusion of the Keystone XL provisions “A TKO decision for Republicans.” From the Left, the liberal news site TPM acknowledges, “In a political hit for Democrats, Republicans insisted on and secured a provision that requires the Obama administration to either greenlight the Keystone XL oil pipeline or for President Obama to publicly nix it by declaring it not in the national interest.”

The Washington Post reported last night, “Senate Democrats emerging from a closed-door meeting Friday night were of two minds about the payroll tax cut plan negotiated by party leaders – at once acknowledging that the deal handed Republicans a victory on the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline but at the same time arguing that the short-term package would put Democrats on offense come the new year.”

At Ace of Spades, Gabriel Malor noted, “Press Secretary Jay Carney was reluctant to repeat Obama's veto threat over Keystone XL, so the President is in the hot seat now. Democrats and unions . . . were freaking out over being put in a position to oppose the thousands of jobs represented by Keystone XL.”

Speaking on the floor this morning, Leader McConnell urged the president to reject the demands from environmental groups looking to block the Keystone XL pipeline, saying, “Keystone was an obvious choice: everybody in Washington says they want more American jobs now. Well, here’s the single largest shovel-ready project in America — ready to go. . . . And since I still haven’t heard a good reason from the White House as to why they would block it, I’m hopeful the President will do the right thing—and get this crucial project underway. The only thing standing between thousands of American workers, and the good jobs this project will provide, is President Obama.”

---

Tags: U.S. senate, Keystone Pipeline, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!