Republican lawmakers sounded hopeful Sunday when asked whether they have enough votes in the U.S. Senate to override President Obama’s veto threat on the Keystone XL pipeline project.
Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and John Hoeven of North Dakota were asked separately on Sunday morning whether the Republican-controlled Senate can garner votes to work around Obama’s veto threat on Keystone, a project that has been held up by federal authorities for the past six years.
“We don’t know, exactly, how the [House’s Keystone] bill will come out of the Senate. As you know, the new majority leader … has pledged an open process where anybody with a good idea can offer that and get a vote on it in the Senate,” Cornyn answered immediately after CBS News’ Bob Schieffer asked him whether Republicans have the votes. “But right now, on the Keystone XL pipeline, we know there is bipartisan group of roughly 63 senators who support that.”
And although Cornyn ultimately admitted that Republicans do not at this moment have the 67 votes necessary to override a presidential veto, he said he’s hopeful they will have at least four more senators signed on when the time comes.
“It could well happen by different amendments to get offered in the Senate and, of course, we’ve been so stuck on dysfunction that we haven’t even engaged in the normal legislative process for a long time, including conference committees between the House and the Senate. I think there’s way forward,” the Texas senator said.
Elsewhere, the senator from North Dakota sounded just as optimistic.
“Right now we’ve got about 63″ votes for Keystone, Hoeven told Fox’s News Chris Wallace, “but we’re going to the floor with an open amendment process, trying to foster more bipartisanship, getting the Senate to work the way it’s supposed to work, so we can pass this measure and other measures. And either override the veto or attach the bill to other legislation that will get 67 votes.”
