House Speaker John Boehner mocked President Barack Obama’s promised veto on a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline, saying the President is “standing with a bunch of left-fringe extremists and anarchists.”
Ignoring the veto pledge, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is expected to pass legislation on Wednesday to allow construction to begin on the pipeline that would carry oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
The measure is expected to hit the President’s desk soon, and will trigger the first veto by the president since the GOP took control of both the House and Senate earlier this year.
Congressional Republicans say the Keystone project will create new jobs and maintain that public opinion is on their side.
“This project has been awaiting approval for more than 2,300 days. The Nebraska Supreme Court struck down the challenge against it, 58 percent of Americans said they support it, and a bipartisan majority in both chambers of Congress approved it,” Tennessee Rep. Diane Black said on the House floor on Wednesday.
Noting the Administration’s opposition, Florida Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings said it’s “highly improbably at best” that the bill will become law, and the GOP-controlled Congress should instead be focused on putting forward proposals to spur the economic recovery that the President would sign. Opponents of the pipeline dispute the estimates of the number of jobs that would be generated by its approval.
Some moderate Democrats in the House and Senate have voted with Republicans on the Keystone bill, but not enough to get to the two-third majority needed to override a presidential veto. Still, Senate Republicans are expected to attempt to bring up the bill again after the expected veto to try to draw a contrast on the issue.