Boehner’s Congress Has Been Busy Boys Today

First, the Keystone Pipeline Bill passes Committee:

House panel approves Keystone pipeline bill

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday approved legislation that would reverse President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

The bill is the latest GOP-led effort to advance the Alberta-to-Texas pipeline. Republicans are also trying to punish Obama politically ahead of the 2012 election for failing to greenlight the project that GOP lawmakers call a way to create jobs and boost energy security.

…It would instruct the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline within 30 days, taking the issue out of the State Department’s hands.

…and then the Speaker seems to have won a union show-down as well:

Boehner claims victory in FAA bill labor fight

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is claiming victory in a fight union rules that had tied up a multiyear funding bill for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The House and Senate have approved legislation that provides nearly $16 billion per year to the FAA through fiscal year 2015. President Obama is expected to sign the bill, which is the first long-term funding measure approved for the agency since 2007.

…“House Republicans achieved reforms that reinstitute the majority-of-eligible threshold at an earlier stage in the process, eliminate a union tactic to force run-off elections, and implement new levels of transparency and oversight at the NMB where previously there was none.”

Under the compromise, 50 percent of a company’s workforce would need to support unionization for a vote to take place, up from the current level of 35 percent. That overrides an NMB decision from 2010 that would have counted non-votes in union elections as “no” votes.

Go. Go. GO.

One Response to “Boehner’s Congress Has Been Busy Boys Today”

1. JeffS says:

   February 8, 2012 at 3:06 pm

   Heh!