The U.S. Senate finished it’s first order of business on Thursday and finally passed legislation to build the Keystone pipeline.
It took them nearly a month to sift through more than 200 amendments, before finally deciding to vote on more than 40, and then cast all of the votes.
“That’s more votes on amendments on this one bill than occurred in the Senate all last year,” said GOP Sen. Cory Gardner, who voted for the pipeline.
Soon-to-be-former-senator and vice presidential contender Michael Bennet also voted in favor of the bill, although President Obama has threatened to veto the measure.
One of our favorite amendments that passed would be Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s measure that affirms constitutional protections for landowners against the use of eminent domain.
Go team!
Another that did not pass would have required the Land and Water Conservation Fund to use some of its funding to secure public recreational access to existing federal public lands.
“Public lands are some of our most precious resources,” Gardner said. “Keeping their conservation properly funded while expanding the public’s access to these beautiful treasures is exactly the sort of goal that I’ve always strived for in policymaking. I’m disappointed that the amendment failed, but I will continue to work towards reauthorization of the LWCF going forward.”
There were the climate change amendments we told you about last week, one passed nearly unanimously declaring it as a real live thing.
Another amendment said climate change was not human caused, and although neither have any impact on law or our lives, it garnered the most media attention because CLIMATE CHANGE!
Unfortunately, an amendment that would have delisted the prairie chicken as a threatened critter under the Endangered Species Act, failed. Gardner voted for it, Bennet voted against it.