- The Washington Times - Tuesday, February 3, 2015

The House will accept the Senate’s Keystone XL pipeline bill next week, passing it and sending it on to President Obama for a final sign-or-veto decision, GOP leaders announced Tuesday.

They had a choice of accepting the Senate legislation, which is slightly different from the bill that passed the House earlier last month, or moving to go to a conference committee where the differences would be hammered out.

After a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Tuesday, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said they’d decided to accept the Senate bill, speeding passage and setting up a quick early showdown with Mr. Obama, who has threatened a veto.

Pipeline supporters, including some labor unions eager to see the new jobs from building the project, say they hope Mr. Obama will relent on his veto threat.

But the White House has shown no signs of changing.

The president says he objects to Congress short-circuiting the current law, which gives his State Department a final say. Keystone’s application has been pending for years, and the State Department has given no indication of when it will act.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

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