White House Threaten Veto of DHS Bill If Amnesty Defunded | Majority of Americans Support Keystone Pipeline

Today in Washington, D.C. - Jan. 15, 2015:
The Supreme Court is in session and hearing several cases. Their orders or opinions are expected according to their calendar to be released on Jan 26, 2015.

The House and Senate are not in session today. Both will be in session tomorrow, Jan. 16, 2014.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told a press conference Wednesday that President Obama will “properly” veto a Republican bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which expressly denies funding for Obama’s recent executive actions granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Obviously the Democrats are all in on the progressive agenda and are not willing to recognize the voice of the people in the 2014 election.

The White House treated that President Obama is expected to veto the bill to keep his amnesty initiatives going. But a presidential veto could mean that funding for the Department of Homeland Security will run out after Feb. 27, effectively shutting down DHS.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) will deliver the Republican Address to the Nation following the State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 20, 2015. Ernst said, “I am truly honored to deliver the Republican address. It’s a long way from Red Oak, Iowa, to Washington, D.C. But now that I am here, I am excited to get to work in order to craft and implement real solutions as we chart a new path forward for our great nation. During this Congress, we must help grow a vibrant economy, see to it that our veterans receive promised quality care and that our military has the tools to defend our nation's security, and ensure the federal government begins to run more effectively and efficiently,”

“Sen. Ernst brings a unique perspective to the Senate. She is a mother, a soldier, and an independent leader who serves in Washington because Americans voted for change in the last election, and Joni understands that middle-class Americans want Congress to get back to work and that they want Washington to get refocused on their concerns, instead of those of the political class,” Majority Leader McConnell said.

“Sen. Ernst’s life is a quintessential ‘only-in-America’ story. She built a campaign by listening to the people of Iowa and focusing on their priorities, especially jobs and our still-struggling economy. She knows that our federal government is too big, our spending is too high, and our tax code is broken. And, she knows first-hand the sacrifices our men and women in uniform make to keep us all safe in a dangerous world,” Speaker Boehner said.

In November 2014, Ernst became the first woman elected to federal office from Iowa, and the first female combat veteran to serve in the U.S. Senate. She will now be the first first-year freshman senator to give the Republican Address to the Nation. Born and raised on a farm in Southwest Iowa, Ernst’s parents instilled in her the values that have been important to generations of Iowans: hard work, service and sacrifice — values she is committed to bringing to Washington, D.C.

Ernst graduated from Iowa State University and joined the Army National Guard in 2001. In 2003, she served as a company commander in Kuwait and Iraq, leading 150 Iowa Army National Guardsmen during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Ernst continues to serve as a Lt. Colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard.

The Washington Post reports that The Obama administration said new rules to significantly loosen the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba and open up the communist island to greater American travel will go into effect Friday. "The U.S. is now “one step closer to replacing out-of-date policies,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Thursday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the new rules 'immediately enable the American people to provide more resources to empower the Cuban population to become less dependent upon the state-driven economy.' . . .

"They also allow U.S. citizens to start bringing home small amounts of Cuban cigars, long adored by aficionados but banned under U.S. law. The limit is $100 for alcohol and tobacco products and $400 in total goods.

"Only Congress can fully end the 54-year embargo. Obama announced last month he would soften the restrictions, arguing that 'these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked.' The new spirit of cooperation emerged after 18 months of secret talks that culminated in the exchange of imprisoned spies and the release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government contractor who had been imprisoned in Cuba for five years."

CNN reports, “A majority of Americans favor the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline -- a result that could give Republicans a boost as they move toward a showdown with President Barack Obama over the project -- a CNN/ORC poll has found. The 1,179-mile Canada-to-Texas pipeline is backed by 57% of the 1,011 Americans surveyed on Dec. 18-21. Just 28% oppose it, while 15% say they are unsure. . . .

“President Barack Obama has threatened to veto a measure that the Senate is set to vote on as soon as next week, which would end the State Department's six-year-old review of the project and authorize its construction immediately. Obama has said he objects to the decision-making process being removed from the executive branch. The poll found that support for the pipeline is strongest in the South, where it's backed by 65% of those polled, and in the Midwest, where it has 63% support.”

In his column for The Washington Post today, George Will takes President Obama and Democrats to task for their constant delays and unconvincing arguments against the pipeline. He writes, “America built the Empire State Building, then the world’s tallest office building, in 410 days during the Depression. We built the Pentagon, still the world’s largest low-rise office building, in 16 months while waging a war across two oceans. Keystone has been studied for more than six years. And Obama considers this insufficient? Actually, there no longer is any reason to think he has ever reasoned about this. He said he would not make up his mind until the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled. It ruled to permit construction, so he promptly vowed to veto authorization of construction.”

Will continues his criticism of the president’s reasoning: “The more Obama has talked about Keystone, the less economic understanding he has demonstrated. On Nov. 14, he said Keystone is merely about ‘providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. That doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices.’ By Dec. 19, someone with remarkable patience had explained to him that there is a world market price for oil, so he said, correctly, that Keystone would have a ‘nominal’ impact on oil prices but then went on to disparage job creation by Keystone. He said it would create ‘a couple thousand’ jobs (the State Department study says approximately 42,100 ‘direct, indirect, and induced’) and said, unintelligibly, ‘Those are temporary jobs until the construction actually happens.’ Well. . . . He does not understand that, outside of government, which is all that he knows or respects, all jobs are ‘temporary.’”

It’s clear that the American public overwhelmingly supports building the Keystone XL pipeline. Bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress have demonstrated support for it. Labor unions have spent years calling on the Obama administration to stop blocking construction of the pipeline.

As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Keystone has been studied endlessly, from almost every possible angle, and the same basic conclusion seems to keep coming back: build it. Keystone’s construction could support thousands of jobs. It could invest billions in our economy.

“That’s why Democrats say ‘build it.’ Republicans say ‘build it.’ Prominent labor unions say ‘build it, ’and, most importantly, the American people say ‘build it.’

“The president has called for Congress to send him infrastructure projects to sign. Keystone is the largest shovel-ready infrastructure project in the country that makes sense. So we’re going to send it to him. We hope he’ll sign it.”

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