Republicans in the Senate are insisting on attaching radical anti-environmental amendments on the transportation bill and Sen. Harry Reid is on the verge of making a bad deal.

Yesterday Reid said he "would be fine" allowing a vote on a Republican amendment to force approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline,¹ and has indicated he will allow other anti-environmental riders as well, which could include rolling back EPA's crucial clean air boiler rule, and provisions to force expanded oil drilling.

Key votes could start as soon as to today. It is very likely there are 60 senators who are at least considering voting for a Keystone XL amendment. We need to put massive pressure on every single Democrat and swing vote in the Senate to keep these amendments out of a deal, and block them if they come up for a vote.

Please call Sen. Johnson now and urge him to oppose Keystone XL and other radical environmental amendments in the Transportation bill.

Republicans are trying to make the transportation bill a massive giveaway to oil companies and other polluters, and make end runs around the White House, EPA and established processes for evaluating pipelines, setting pollution standards and regulating drilling.

The problem is that a dangerous number of Democrats might be pressured to go along with these votes. And we have no assurances that President Obama would veto a transportation bill with a Keystone XL provision attached.

Today on the Senate floor, Sen. Reid indicated again that he was going to let Republican obstructionism dictate votes on unrelated attacks on our environment and public health:

"I think it's unfortunate we're going to have to have votes on a number of amendments that have nothing, nothing to do with this underlying piece of legislation. This is one thing that the American people really don't like, and our town hall meetings, our visitations with people throughout the state, I've come to the realization that they hate this so-called, what they call riders, things that have nothing to do with bills. Senate rules allow them in most instances, and so if it takes this to get this bill done, we'll have to move forward in that way."²

We don't know if Reid's willingness to make a deal indicates an overconfidence in the number of sane environmental votes in the Senate, President Obama's desire to cut a deal regardless of the cost, just being a terrible negotiator, or something else.

But we do know that now is a moment to pick up the phone and let Senators know that they will be held accountable for supporting these attacks. Please call Sen. Johnson now:

http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FSSD_1&cp_id=201&id=36219-1647563-kZHe8fx&t=6

Please make the call today. Thanks for you activism.

Republicans are trying to force votes in the Transportation bill on radical anti-environmental amendments including to force approval of Keystone XL. Call now to urge Sen. Johnson to reject the end run on Keystone XL and other public health protections. Click here for a simple script and number to call

Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager

CREDO Action from Working Assets

act@credoaction.com