McConnell: Senate Focus Will Be Jobs, Middle Class, Restoring The Senate | White House

Today in Washington, D.C. - Jan 7, 2014:
The Senate reconvened at 9:30 AM. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave remarks on the new Republican Congress and returning the Senate to work through regular order.

It’s expected that later today, the Senate will pass an organizing resolution, setting committee memberships.

The House convened at 10 AM. Bill Expected to be addressed today:
H.R. 26 — "To extend the termination date of the Terrorism Insurance Program established under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, and for other purposes."
H.R. 37 — "To make technical corrections to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, to enhance the ability of small and emerging growth companies to access capital through public and private markets, to reduce regulatory burdens, and for other purposes."
H.R. 35 — "To increase the understanding of the health effects of low doses of ionizing radiation."
H.R. 23 — "To reauthorize the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program, and for other purposes."
H.R. 34 — "To authorize and strengthen the tsunami detection, forecast, warning, research, and mitigation program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and for other purposes."

Yesterday the House passed by a vote of 412-0: H.R. 22 — "To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt employees with health coverage under TRICARE or the Veterans Administration from being taken into account for purposes of determining the employers to which the employer mandate applies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."

The UPI noted today: "A sign from the White House that bills meant to approve Keystone XL would be met with a veto is disappointing, the American Petroleum Institute said Tuesday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest affirmed signals from the president's desk that Keystone XL might not get moved through normal vetting procedures despite a bill introduced Tuesday by the newly-minted GOP leadership on Capitol Hill. . . ."

Note, if the President were to veto an Keystone XL Pipeline bill. it is doubtful Congress could over-ride his veto. It takes an affirmative vote by 2/3 by both the House and the Senate to override a presidential veto. The Senate Republican Caucus has 54 members and the Democrat Caucus has 46. The House of Representative Caucus has 234 members and the Democrat Caucus has 201.

In an op-ed for CNN today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell addressed his plans and hopes for the new Congress.

He writes, “It's a fresh beginning for our country, and I'm optimistic. A lot can be achieved if President Obama and his party work with us to advance common-sense jobs ideas for the middle class. In the Senate, we welcome many new senators determined to achieve serious results. These men and women share my party's resolve to end Washington's dysfunction and get things done for the middle class again.

“The truth is, the American people no longer trust Washington to do the right thing. For many, it's never seemed harder just to get by. Many faced the reality of losing their health plan after being told they could keep it. Many continue to struggle with rising medical costs that the president and his allies in Congress repeatedly told us would fall. Confidence in the American Dream wanes at home, while the world seems filled with chaos overseas. Americans are rightly concerned. And yet, for years Washington has seemed uninterested or incapable of addressing their concerns; for years, Washington seemed to be working for itself instead of for them. That changes today.

“Because the message voters sent in November was clear. They want the administration to change course and move to the middle, and they want dysfunction in the Senate to come to an end. The American people didn't ask for a government that tries to do everything and they didn't ask for a government that aims to do nothing. They want a government that works again. They want us to focus on more jobs, more opportunity, and more flexibility for a middle class that feels squeezed.”

Unfortunately, the White House immediately set a confrontational tone by threatening to veto the bipartisan Keystone XL pipeline bill, which would create jobs and strengthen America’s energy infrastructure.

The Washington Post notes, “The new Congress was not yet two hours old when the White House announced Tuesday that the president would veto the first bill lawmakers plan to send to his desk: a measure authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline across the Canada-U.S. border. The veto threat — which White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued as a dozen new GOP senators took their oaths and House Republicans reelected John A. Boehner (Ohio) as speaker — marked a contentious start to a session during which the president will face a legislative branch controlled by the GOP.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a cosponsor of the Keystone bill introduced by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), blasted the White House for the veto threat. “‘It’s the most discouraging thing I’ve ever heard,’ Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said in a phone interview minutes after Earnest made his comments. ‘For the leader of the country to say, basically, “Forget it. This is all for naught,” is not what this country is about. It’s not what we’re all about, and it’s not the process that I’m used to working through.’ Manchin, who authored the bill with Hoeven, said he had called a senior official in White House legislative affairs Tuesday morning to discuss the proposal and had gotten no indication that Obama was ready to announce a veto threat.”

The Post adds, “Republicans were even more scathing in their response. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) noted in a statement that when then-Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) ‘was trying to save her job over the exact same Keystone bill,’ the president did not issue the same threat. ‘The president threatening to veto the first bipartisan infrastructure bill of the new Congress must come as a shock to the American people, who spoke loudly in November in favor of bipartisan accomplishments,’

The Wall Street Journal editors were similarly critical: “President Obama welcomed the 114th Congress Tuesday with an Obama-as-usual gesture: The White House said he will veto a bipartisan bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline if it gets to desk, as seems likely. . . . Mr. Obama claims to want more spending on infrastructure, but apparently not if the financing is from private business rather than taxpayers.”

They go on to debunk the president’s downplaying of the jobs the pipeline would create. “[H]is own State Department reported last year that the project would employ some 10,000 construction workers, and that the $3.3 billion investment would support another 16,000 providing the pipe, tools, trucks and services (insurance, hotel rooms) for the project. There are another 26,000 indirect jobs that come from Keystone workers spending their wages on the likes of food, rent or vacations.”

And yet, that wasn’t the only bipartisan legislation the president threatened to veto within hours of the new Congress opening. The WSJ writes, “The White House said Tuesday it would veto a potential tweak to the health care law that would change the law’s definition of a full-time worker from 30 hours a week to 40 hours a week. Asked if President Barack Obama would veto a Republican-sponsored bill making the change, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said: ‘We would.’”

In another article, The Journal observes, “President Barack Obama welcomed the new Republican majority to town on Tuesday by vowing to sink two of the top items on the party’s legislative agenda. The aggressive tone from the White House on the opening day of the new GOP-led Congress calls into question the prospects for a productive working relationship in 2015, after four years of gridlock.”

As Leader McConnell said opening the Senate this morning, “[B]ipartisan reform can only be achieved if President Obama is interested in it. The president is the only one who can bring his party on board. He’s the only one who can sign what Congress passes. And I assure you, threatening to veto a jobs and infrastructure bill within minutes of a new Congress taking the oath of office — a bill with strong bipartisan support — is anything but productive.”

“It’s not our job to protect the president from good ideas,” Leader McConnell said. “A little creative tension between the executive and the legislature can be healthy in a democracy like ours. Presidents and Congresses have disagreed before. They’ve confronted challenges that eclipse the ones we see today. What is important to remember is that the Senate has always endured. And we have a duty to restore it now so that we can meet the mandate of the people who sent us here.”

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