Obama veto of pipeline bill elicits House GOP anger

President Obama’s veto of the Keystone Pipeline Approval Act on Tuesday, legislation that was six years in the making and drew significant bipartisan majorities, drew sharp criticism from House Republicans.

“I am disappointed the president vetoed one of the first bipartisan jobs bills passed by the new 114th Congress,” U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) said. “The Keystone XL pipeline project enjoys broad, bipartisan support from Republicans and Democrats, labor unions and small-business owners, not to mention an overwhelming majority of the American public. Today’s veto action, done quietly without fanfare, shows that the Obama administration has not yet engaged in bipartisan cooperation with the new Congress. I hope the president will do so in the near future, on this and other issues important to the Nation.”

“The president’s decision to veto Keystone XL and its over 40,000 jobs and increased energy security all in the name of politics is wrong,” U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said. “Approving construction of this project should be one of the easiest decisions of his presidency, as both Democrats and Republicans helped get this bill through Congress, and his own State Department estimated that the pipeline would support $2 billion in earnings. President Obama owes an explanation to the American people as to why he is siding with the radical environmental lobby over what is best for this nation.”

“Keystone has become more than a pipeline. It’s a symbol of President Obama’s unwillingness to put American jobs first,” U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said. “He has gone against the will of the American people by vetoing Keystone’s 42,000 jobs. It’s time for the president to put the interests of the American people ahead of the agenda of an extreme wing of his party.”