GOP lawmaker: Senate Dems, Obama need to pass Keystone

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) called on Senate Democrats to pass a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline — and urged President Obama to sign it — in the party’s weekly radio address Saturday.

“We ask President Obama and Senate Democrats to finally give this project the green light that the American people have been waiting for,” said the House Republican.

{mosads}The House passed a bill to approve the controversial pipeline on Friday. The Senate has said it will take up the matter on Tuesday.

Obama has not made it clear whether he will sign an approval bill into law, but he is expected to seriously consider vetoing the bill.

While the debate over the bill was expected to come up when the new Congress took office, it has taken on an added urgency because of the Senate runoff between Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). Both believe they could be buoyed by helping secure congressional approval for the pipeline.

Wenstrup said that by passing the bill, the House GOP “have begun to make good on our vow to honor [the voters’] trust by focusing first on jobs and the economy.”

After picking up seats in the midterms, House Republicans have wasted no time presenting their agenda beyond Keystone to the American people. Wenstrup said that they will pursue changes to ObamaCare and seek to pass a bill they say would boost veteran hiring.

Both were priorities also mentioned one week ago by Speaker John Boehner in the first weekly address following the election — which also saw the GOP take the Senate majority.

Wenstrup went after Obama for recent moves by the administration to back tighter regulations on Internet providers, strike a deal over emission reductions with China and pursue executive action on immigration.

“We’ve warned him that such action would make it that much harder to pass immigration reform and find common ground,” he said.

He also highlighted statements made last year by an MIT health economist who advised the government on the creation of ObamaCare, and said that the law passed because of the “stupidity of the American voter.”

“This is the same arrogance we’ve seen time and time again from this administration and its allies. This is insulting to all of us,” Wenstrup said.