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Archive: 2011 November
Keystone Pipeline Update
Despite the Obama Administration’s earlier assertion that it would either approve or disapprove the Keystone XL Pipeline project by the end of this year, the State Department, on November 10, announced a delay in the final decision. The proposed $7 billion, 1700-mile pipeline would connect the oil sands region of Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. (See the December 2011 Congressional Digest titled “Keystone Pipeline.”) Under the original proposal, the pipeline would pass through the Sand Hills of Nebraska, which includes the Ogalla Aquifer, a major fresh water resource for eight states. Critics were concerned that oil spills…
Court Puts Health Care Challenge on the Docket
The wait is finally over. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to a series of cases challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law. For five and a half hours over the course of two days sometime next March, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on several aspects of the the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. For two hours, the Court will consider whether the mandate that all U.S. citizens must buy health insurance or pay a penalty is unconstitutional. For the next 90 minutes, the Court will hear arguments about whether the…
Senate Blocks Infrastructure Bank Proposal
The Senate dealt the Obama Administration’s job package another blow on November 3 by refusing to consider the Rebuild America Jobs Act, a$60 billion measure to build and repair infrastructure and create an infrastructure bank to leverage private and public capital for long-term projects. The 51-to-49 vote fell short of the 60 needed to proceed to a debate and vote. All Republican senators, as well as Democrats Ben Nelson (NE) and Joe Lieberman (CT) opposed the bill. The concept of an infrastructure bank has been around for some time. As described in the January 2009 Congressional Digest on “Infrastructure Financing,”…