Video: U.S. House Sends Keystone Legislation To President Barack Obama

The U.S. House today approved the Senate’s version of the Keystone XL pipeline legislation, sending the matter to President Barack Obama without the need for conference committee.

Rep. Cramer, who introduced the House iteration of the legislation, spoke in favor of the Senate version and in favor of the House sending legislation to President Barack Obama even in the face of a veto threat.

“Veto threats before voting on important legislation leads to gridlock I suppose,” Cramer said, “but that shouldn’t stop us from doing our work.”

He also addressed concerns voiced by Democrats about approving the pipeline amid low oil prices, noting that oil prices were pretty low when TransCanada began the project.

“2036 days ago the price of oil was approaching $50,” he said, “but TransCanda still applied” to build the Keystone pipeline.

Infrastructure which lowers the price of bringing energy to market is “even more important during low prices,” Cramer added.

Obama is going to veto this legislation, to be sure, but Republicans have sent a message with this bill. It has bi-partisan support. It was thoroughly debated, with the Senate allowing more amendment votes on this bill than they allowed all of last year under Democrat control. This is supposedly the sort of compromise and working togetherness that Obama says he wants from Congress.

Yet, because this energy project doesn’t meet his ideological criteria he’ll veto it, even though it meets all regulatory criteria.

President Obama now has 10 days (not counting Sundays) to sign the law, veto the law, or let it pass into law without his signature.