Keystone Pipeline

Floor Speech

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, in a moment some of my colleagues will come to the floor and ask to enter into a colloquy and discuss an issue that is important to many of us, especially to those of us who represent States in the West and Midwest.

The issue I wish to speak about has to do with something that over the past 5 years the Obama administration has been particularly active in pursuing.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. I say through the Chair to the majority leader, the offer, as I understand it, that was put forward by the majority leader with respect to the energy efficiency bill was that this bill would be passed with no amendments. There would be no debate, no amendments, and then somewhere down the road we might get the vote on the Keystone Pipeline.

Well, it strikes me at least, as many of my colleagues on this side have been pointing out now for some time, that the way in which the majority leader is running the floor and calling up legislation, preventing amendments to be offered, to be debated and voted on, denies the rights not only of us as Senators but ignores the voices of the people we represent.

So for the majority leader to say we will pass this bill without any amendment--energy is an important issue in many of our States. It is important in my State of South Dakota. It is important to a lot of Members on our side and I would suggest to a lot of Members on the leader's side who would like to have an opportunity to debate some amendments on energy if we are going to have an energy bill on the floor. The leaders came down and said no amendments, no debate, you pass this. We will jam this bill down without amendment, and then sometime we will get to the vote on Keystone.

We would love to get a vote on Keystone. The leader can call that up at any time. We have been saying for some time we ought to have a vote on Keystone. There is broad bipartisan support for it in the Senate. There are a lot of Democrats who support the Keystone Pipeline. But what the leader is suggesting again is he is going to put a bill up, fill the amendment tree, and prevent Republicans from offering amendments. We don't think that is the way the Senate ought to operate.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I would say to the distinguished majority leader that we on this side believe that when we bring an energy bill to the floor to talk about energy, we ought to talk about energy. Now, he may suggest there were certain things incorporated in the bill that some of his Members wanted, maybe even perhaps some of our Members wanted, but we have a lot of Members on this side who have been shut out, who haven't had an opportunity to offer amendments now for the past year. We can come to the floor every day and talk about the fact that since July of last year there have only been votes on 9 Republican amendments and 7 Democratic amendments, out of 1,500 that have been filed. This is insanity.

We would love to get a vote on the Keystone Pipeline, but we also think there are a lot of other energy issues that are important to this country, and if we bring an energy bill to the floor of the Senate, the historical practice in this institution has been that it is open to amendments. All Members get an opportunity to offer amendments. There are issues in addition to the Keystone Pipeline that are critically important to jobs and to the economy and to the energy security in this country. So the way the leader has suggested that this ought to work isn't simply about an argument on procedure. This is about whether the Senate is going to function in a way where the views of the millions of people we represent--those of us here would love to offer amendments on these bills and are being prevented from doing it.

So I would simply say to the leader that this is not simply about the Keystone Pipeline. This is about the broader debate on energy--what it means for jobs, what it means for our economy. We are in a place now where we are not even getting votes in committee. Appropriations bills are being pulled back at the committee level because Democratic Members don't want to vote on amendments that Republican Members might offer. That is not the way this place is supposed to work.

So I appreciate the majority leader's understandable frustration, but it is a frustration that is grounded in the way he is running this institution, not in anything our side is doing.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source