Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015 -- Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Congress is sending the President of the United States another piece of bipartisan legislation today. Americans of both parties are calling on him to sign it. There is no good reason not to. The Keystone jobs bill is just common sense. Construction of this important infrastructure project would support thousands of American jobs. It would pump billions into our economy and the President's own State Department told us this could be achieved with minimal--minimal--environmental impact. That is why this jobs and infrastructure bill passed both Houses of Congress with bipartisan support.

I know powerful special interests and political extremists are pressuring the President to veto American jobs. I hope President Obama will join with us in standing for the middle class instead. It is hard to even imagine what a serious justification for a veto might be. Excuses related to the review process obviously won't work, since this bipartisan bill is a solution for fixing a review the Obama administration broke as it ignored deadlines and interfered for political reasons. Plus, the President has called on Congress to send him infrastructure projects, and Keystone is an important infrastructure project that is shovel ready.

Americans are urging President Obama to finally heed scientific conclusions his own State Department already reached. There is no reason for the President to ignore that science any longer. Republicans and Democrats, labor unions and businesses--we are all calling on him to finally allow American workers to build an infrastructure project that just makes good sense.

Mr. President, last night I took action to allow the Senate to consider commonsense legislation that every Democrat should want to support. This targeted measure would address the President's most recent overreach from November.

The bill isn't tied to DHS funding. There is no excuse for our friends on the other side to oppose it. That is especially true of the Democrats who led their constituents to believe they would stand up for democratic principles in this debate. These colleagues have hidden behind all manner of excuses to avoid upsetting the far left. Well, this bill removes the excuses and it sets up a simple political equation: Either stand in defense of extreme overreach or stand with constituents in support of shared democratic values.

As I have said already, my preference remains with the legislation that has already passed the House. It is still the simplest way forward. But as long as Democrats continue to prevent us from even debating that bill, I am ready to try another way. I hope our friends across the aisle will demonstrate similar flexibility.

I am calling on Senators of good faith to work with us and move the bill forward as quickly as possible. So let's get to work.

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