Keystone XL Pipeline Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am glad Senator Murkowski has now agreed that the outlandish tar sands loophole, which rips off taxpayers and communities, must be closed. The difference between our amendments is that Senator Murkowski's amendment is a nonbinding resolution to close the loophole sometime down the road. My amendment, in contrast, closes the loophole now.

The argument Senator Murkowski makes against my amendment is that it is a revenue measure that should start in the House. The fact is that there is a House revenue measure at the Senate desk right now that I would be happy to call up and amend as a substitute to my amendment to close the loophole that ends the tar sands double standard harming our communities and taxpayers. That way we will be acting in a constitutional fashion and the Senate makes clear we want to close the loophole today.

I will close by saying that until I can propound the unanimous consent request to do just that, I intend to go along with the Murkowski amendment. After its consideration, I hope my colleagues will vote for my amendment because closing this flagrant tax loophole is too important to wait.

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, it is very significant that more than 70 Senators just voted for a nonbinding resolution to close an outlandish tax loophole that favors Canadian tar sand producers over American oil and American taxpayers. That vote was for a nonbinding resolution. The next amendment that I offer allows the Senate to actually eliminate the flagrant loophole now.

As for the blue-slip question, this amendment is an amendment that we ought to pass now and then add to an appropriate House revenue measure. This amendment, colleagues, ends the double standard today. To say to your communities, to your taxpayers, and to your producers that Canada should essentially get a free ride is not right. Let's actually do the job now.

I yield back.

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