Senate Democrats Block Republican Attempt To Override Obama’s Veto of Keystone XL Bill

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:40 pm

Senate Democrats have successfully blocked the Republican attempt to override President Obama’s veto of Keystone XL.

Sixty-seven votes were required to override the veto, and Republicans came up several votes short. The final vote was 62-37. The senators who voted to uphold President Obama’s veto included, Sens. Al Franken (D-MN), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid also voted no. The same group of Democrats who helped pass Keystone XL also voted to override the president’s veto.

Before the vote, Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) tried to sell his gift to Big Oil as a middle-class issue, “I’m urging every Democrat who still believes their party should be about workers, not these deep-pocketed special interests and extremists, to join us. Vote for cloture. Vote to override. Keystone’s bipartisan coalition in the Senate is only a few votes shy of from the two-thirds majority we’d need to override this partisan veto and bring Keystone’s jobs here to America. And it’s not too late stop your party from venturing down a path even further afield from the interests of American workers and the Middle Class.”

The Keystone XL bill was never a jobs bill. It was never about energy independence. The Keystone XL bill was a gift to a foreign oil company that would have allowed them to ship oil that was destined for sale on the open market through the United States.

The failure to override the president’s veto represents another failure for the Republican congressional majority. McConnell spent nearly a month in passing Keystone XL, and he is right back to where he started from. Keystone XL is no closer to be approved, and Republicans wasted valuable time on an issue that has never caught on with the American people.

McConnell’s failure to override President Obama’s veto is proof that the power in the Senate is with the Democrats. Keystone XL was supposed to be the issue that divided Democrats and allowed Republicans to get something done. In reality, Republicans are accomplishing nothing while Democrats continue to stand strong.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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