The controversial Keystone XL pipeline found its way into a complicated congressional budget process in late January when Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced an amendment to the Senate’s budget resolution signifying support for the project, which was effectively shut down when President Joe Biden retracted the cross-border permit his predecessor issued in 2017.
Though largely symbolic—budget resolutions are more about signaling priorities than making law—it was notable when the Daines measure, Amendment 678 to Continuing Resolution 5, narrowly passed with affirmative votes from just two Democratic senators: Montana’s Jon Tester and West Virginia lawmaker Joe Manchin.
The amendment, which was aimed at “the improvement of relations between the United States and Canada with regard to the Keystone XL Pipeline,” passed 52-48 in early February. Many GOP lawmakers cheered the development.
But by the time senators wrapped up their marathon session, support for Keystone XL had been removed from Continuing Resolution 5 and associated amendments. In the early hours the next day, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced an amendment consolidating many of the previously passed amendments and cleaning up some of the bill language.
Daines’ Keystone XL amendment was not included in that measure, which contained a suite of unrelated items. Both Tester and Manchin voted in favor of the Schumer amendment, which narrowly passed 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.
The Daines camp said Tester and Manchin “flip-flopped” their position on Keystone XL, a project pursued by Canadian company TC Energy to transport tar sands oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast.
“In the wee hours of the morning, in the most D.C. swampy way possible, Senate Democrats flip-flopped on their support for American energy and union jobs by killing Senator Daines’ Keystone XL Pipeline amendment and another supporting fracking,” a Daines press release said.
Tester’s team countered that the Schumer amendment included several important provisions necessary to advance COVID-19 relief aid, and that Tester voted in favor of the only measure “directly on the Keystone pipeline”—Daines’ amendment. Tester’s office maintained that his support for the project “has remained steadfast for a decade.”
The budget resolution made it through both chambers and lawmakers can move forward with crafting the substance of a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package.
Daines is now at work on another piece of legislation pertaining to the project, Senate Bill 171, a Bill to Authorize the Keystone XL Pipeline. It’s being cosponsored by 14 GOP senators and has been referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. — Amanda Eggert, Montana Free Press
