. >> joining us on "newsmakers," senator john hoeven, republican of north dakota and member of the senate energy committee. joining us for the questioning is matthew daly, who covers energy and environmental issues for the "associated press," and niels lesniewski, staff writer for "cq roll call." this week, the senate is taking up, presumably, the keystone xl pipeline. you are at 57 votes. how do you get to 60? >> it is a challenge because the democrat leadership in the senate and the white house are pushing back hard. i have got a bill that approves the project. we updated it. we have 56 sponsors for that legislation. i have maybe a couple more votes, but getting to 60 is going to be a real challenge because of the hard push from the white house. >> if it passes in the senate, what does this do for the state department and the white house in its decision? >> this would approve the project under the clause in the constitution, which gives congress the authority to regulate or to oversee commerce with foreign nations. we have done the research and found out congress has the authority to ap

hoeven-pryor, amendment on water heaters. hoeven-manchin-isakson-bennet, amendments on energy efficiency and federal buildings and residential buildings. and a sessions-pryor amendment on third-party testing. last month, shaheen and portman reached a new version of their bill to incorporate all these changes. the bill has 14 cosponsors, seven on each side. it's sponsored by the republican side, portman, ayotte, collins, hoeven, wicker. on the democrat side, shaheen, bennet, franken, manchin, warner. mr. president, it will be hard to find a more partisan consensus piece of legislation, but always, mr. president, always this is a bipartisan piece of legislation. but always it's the shell game. okay, we have got it here. try to figure out where i put that shell. is it here, is it here? where is that dollar? is it here, is it here? i will yield in just a second. mr. president, this is what i talked about earlier. we have been going five years with this. five years, trying to stop anything that obama wants to do. obama would like

so i know that it's contentious but i wanted to come to the floor to talk, senator hoeven i think gave a excellent defense of why the keystone pipeline is important. but i would just want to underscore in terms of jobs and the economy, but i just want to underscore the process, because there are a lot of democrats and others in my caucus, friends and colleagues that have said, well, you know, has the process been complete, has the process been thorough? i just want to review for the record a couple of very interesting things. and before i start on that, i want to point again, this is the keystone x.l. pipeline. there's already a -- quote -- "keystone pipeline" that's been constructed and operating for quite some time. this is an existing pipeline that is operating from canada down to the refineries in texas technically but very close to the louisiana border. we are very proud of our industry in texas and louisiana, the refining capacity that we have, the ability to generate resources that this country and the world needs. and hopefully if we can open up exports appropriately, that is h

hoeven: thank you, mr. president. i ask that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. hoeven: today i filed an updated bill to approve the keystone x.l. pipeline project. that bill is at the desk. what this legislation does is it approves the project congressionally, which is authorized under the constitution of the united states. section 8 of article 1 of our constitution expressly gives congress the authority to regulate commerce with foreign nations. and that's the determination we're looking for here from the president on this pipeline project. the decision is simply is the project in the national interest or is it not? now, the president and his administration have been considering this project and this decision, is it in the national interest or not, for more than five years. we're now in the sixth year. it was our expectation that the process would be completed on or about the first week in may. the final environmental impact statement came out at the end of january, and as the prior environmental impact statements h

and again a hoeven-manchin-isakson-bennet efficiency in residential buildings. and the 10th amendment was by senator sessions and pryor, requires d.o.e. to recognize independent certification programs. so this argument that the reason we can't have a vote on the keystone pipeline is because democrats would not allow amendments is completely bogus. completely bogus. and anyone following this debate knows that. senator shaheen and senator portman compromised, and i thought as the new chair of the committee, if the republicans wanted a vote on keystone, we could at least offer that and thought that was a big step, i mean a big step. i guess it was so big they decided they didn't want to take it. because they could have had a vote on keystone. they can't take yes for an answer. i thought that was a big step forward, a big improvement over where we were about six months ago when where we had three democrats, we now have almost 11, and the number is growing to support keystone, not because people are not respectful of the president's position, he's entitled to have hi

. >> joining us, senator john hogan, republican of north hoeven,-- john republican of north dakota. -- joining us -- week, the keystone xl pipeline. your 57 vote, how do you get to 60? >> it is a challenge because the democratic leader in the senate and the white house are pushing back hard. i have got a build -- a bill that proves the project. we updated it. for that6 sponsors legislation. i have maybe a couple more, but getting to 60 is going to be a real challenge because of a hard push from the white house. >> if it passes in the senate, what does this do for the state department and the white house in its decision? approve thed project under the clause in the constitution, which gives congress the authority to commerceor to oversee with foreign nations. we have done the research and found out congress has the authority to approve the project . we approve it congressionally rather than having the president approve it. >> how much pressure is the chair of the energy committee facing. -- facing? you are smiling. >> we have every single republican senator on board. democratic 11 sena

on the other side of the aisle, senator hoeven. all of them were very involved in the kind of nuts and bolts of redoing this legislation. and, suffice it to say, i think the three of them would be the first to say that they don't agree on every possible energy policy kind of matter. and yet the three of them came together, worked with this coalition of groups that i have described, and made a significant improvement in the bill -- in the already good bill after september, and, as a result of their work, we generated financial savings that made it possible to include the isakson-bennet legislation on residential mortgages, which i would submit, mr. president, is a very, very significant and positive development in the energy efficiency field. this is not a small matter to really take bold steps to improve energy efficiency in residential mortgages, the way our colleagues, senator isakson and senator bennet, have done in a bipartisan fashion. so, the reason that this -- so the reason that this efficiency legislation is back is becaus

this is legislation that has been introduced with senator graham of south carolina, with senator hoeven of north carolina, two republicans as well as senator schumer and senator coons. as i noted, it passed the judiciary committee but we still have objections on the other side, people that are holding this bill up. at the same time metal theft continues to rise across the country, and this bill does not create the kind of burdens that my friend mentioned. this bill is very narrow. the only crime that it creates for a federal crime is a crime of theft of critical infrastructure. critical infrastructure, something that could threaten the national security, and this is not a far reach given that we have seen people stealing copper pipes, given that we have seen houses blow up. it is not a far reach at all. secondly, what does this bill do? well, it leaves it to states to decide what metal theft laws they want because in the end, it does not preempt those laws. if they have laws that are on point, if they have laws relating to metal theft that create some kind of a requirement that not ever

tell me, republicans, maybe you, senator hoeven, sense you're an economic development guru, how manyobs will the keystone xl pipeline create? how many? for how long? it's not brain surgery. given plea a number. s show me a chart of jobs that keystone's going to bring to america. you can't do it because numbers don't exist. remember, few and short term, that's the job assessment for this pipeline. anybody that tells you anything different is totally wrong. the next thing the national climate assessment, they're going to tell you that doesn't matter. have you seen republicans come out and say you know this has got some merit we need to think about climate change? no. because facts don't matter. that's their climate change policy. there is no policy. facts don't matter. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. will republicans ever accept defeat on the keystone pipeline? 67622, go to our blog, we'll bring you results later on in the show? talk colorado tonight and the tracking going on out there. congressman jared polis joins us tonight. appreciate your time. way to stan

on the republican side, portman, ayotte, collins, hoeven, isakson, murkowski and wicker. on the democratic side, it was shaheen, bennet, coons, franken, landrieu, manchin and warner. a good mix of senators on both sides. so it will be very, very hard to find a more bipartisan bill. and i washed with them, i didn't give up. we continued trying to move forward. we did that as we did with child care last -- recently. it was in march, actually. i have looked for other bipartisan bills that we could come forward on. we did it with the child care bill. we should do it on this bill. that was my anticipation, and we were able to do it, i thought. so this shaheen-portman bill is a very fine bill. i reached out to republican senators. to be honest with you, they reached out to me, mr. president. they wanted to work to get this passed. we said originally the arrangement was let's just pass this bill as it is. right before the august recess, i was told how about a sense of the senate resolution on keystone. i said i don't want to do that. we already have an agreement. anyway, we rele

or senator hoeven's bill to improve the keystone pipeline and open up the 52,000-plus jobs that it would support. or senator collins' bill to fix the obamacare 30-hour workweek provision so we don't have so many part-time employees in this country and we get more people to work on a full-time basis. or the numerous republican proposals that have been offered by our colleagues to check e.p.a.'s overreach and to protect the millions of jobs proposed meap regulations could destroy. or the democrat majority could allow an open amendment process to the tax extender bill that we're going to be considering here soon to allow for the consideration of permanent tax relief measures for american families and small businesses. because, mr. president, americans deserve tax certainty, not more short-term measures. i intend to file amendments to the tax extenders bill this week to make a number of important pro-growth provisions permanent such as the ability for small businesses and farmers to expense more of their business investments. i intend to work with senator cantwell and others on an amendment

i've worked with senator hoeven, of course, on this and senator heitkamp. they have both taken a lead on this as well as senator franken to get this done. the region avoided flooding this year. the river has been, however, in major flood stage six out of the last eight years. in 2009, the year of the record flood, the river rose to more than 40 feet. in minnesota and north dakota, the red river doesn't divide us. working together, it actually brings us together and unites us, and it is that spirit of solidarity that drives our efforts in the red river basin. floods damage homes, destroy crops and hold entire cities hostage. the fargo-morehead flood diversion project is critical to safety and economic development in the region and finding a permanent solution to the issue makes much more economic sense than continuing to fight the flooding and repair damages year after year. the wrda bill also helps address flood protection for roso, minnesota. roso has recovered from a flood in 2002 that caused widespread damage but the area needs flood protection to reduce

. >> joining us on "newsmakers," senator john hoeven, republican of north dakota and member of the senateenergy committee. joining us for the questioning is matthew daly, who covers energy and environmental issues for the "associated press," and niels lesniewski, staff writer for "cq roll call." this week, the senate is taking up, presumably, the keystone xl pipeline. you are at 57 votes. how do you get to 60? >> it is a challenge because the democrat leadership in the senate and the white house are pushing back hard. i have got a bill that approves the project. we updated it.

hoeven: i rise to speak in regard to obamacare. the good senator from wyoming made compelling points, as the senator from indiana before him. what i'd like to do is just start here for a minute by reading from some of the letters that i've received from constituents in my state in regard to obamacare or the affordable care act. and these are from hardworking people that are trying to figure out what to do about their health insurance with obamacare in place. and i think that really those are the voices that speak louder than any others. the voices of people from across this great country, that live in all of our states and they're writing to members of this body and saying, hey, here's what i'm experiencing. so, you know, this isn't just coming down and expressing an opinion on the affordable care act. this is -- this is what people are saying. this is what they're telling us. and i think it's very important that we take time to listen and to understand the very real difficulties that they're having with something that's so vitally

host: john ho of and -- john hoeven will be with us. if you want to find that whole conversation, stay tuned for our newsmakers program right after this program at 10:00. suzanne from phoenix, arizona on the independent line. caller: i lived in and worked in d.c. inside the federal government and outside. the hometown newspaper is what is controlling the u.s.. long-term tendency with elected officials and the support groups. a situation they say there are no consequences for actions, there is duplication of effort, there is the contracting system where people are working with thentracts and then there is the lobbying system. all the stuff goes on decade after decade. it is like a world when -- a whirlwind to itself. or the person actually doing a job has no idea that this is sort of like future world except it keeps on repeating. host: i was going to ask how you -- yourciate with perspective as you have been here in washington. caller: people who show up for a -- i know there are partners in very successful firms. is thatservance to me

i'm karen hoeven, chief strategy at bay path college., your scrappiness, that we want to offer you a scholarship from bay path college! >> i think that what just happened here brings the message home. if you have don't put yourself out there, you don't know what's going to happen. if i hadn't put myself out there a long time ago when i was fired and started all over again at msnbc, i wouldn't be here today. ♪ ♪ >> it was a great day. >> good for you. >> i love to bust your chops but that's wonderful what you're doing. good for you. >> there were so many amazing women. >> i love that organic moment, though -- >> oh, my lord, bay path college. >> she just happened to be there. >> full scholarship. >> i knew deep inside when i was listening to her, something special was going to happen for her. i did not think it was going to happen five seconds later. >> i'm raising eight kids, take caring of a mother, going back to college. men can't -- we can't do this. >> women need to be able to -- that whole competition. >> and gayle king, who is bett

i've been working over a year with senator hoeven with democrats and republicans.umber of democrats. 11 to 15. and 15 is the magic number to get to 60 to send it to the president to get the pipeline built. i think it should have been built a year ago. one of the things i want to do is chair the energy committee is make sure we're meeting the environmental rules and regs. that we're not trampling over the states in laying these pipelines but that we do it in a more expeditious manner. but the important thing to know is as we focus on keystone, we've already built 2.9 million lines miles of pipe in this country. we have to make more. i want america to be energy dependent and we can. it's the first time in our lifetime even the industry -- this has been been taken by surprise. and to do it with canada and mexico so north america becomes a powerhouse is what i'm fighting for. >> we've got a lot of people that want to talk to you. we're going with a lightning round. >> your disciplinary daunts me but i'm going to try. around this table this white house opposition to key

we'll talk to senator hoeven about that bill. is treated better we'll talk tax reform with two experts on that. we have the panel looking ahead, leaning into the business week ahead. >> all that and more in 12 minutes. >> 12 minutes, maria bartiromo. >> you're so calm. you have a show to host. >> she knows her stuff. that's why she's calm. >>> coming up here on the show, a university's psa to stop cheating backfires. all of the answers for the test were on the no cheating poster on his hand. >>> and the perfect dress, the perfect dance and the perfect date. a teenager takes his great grandmother to prom since she never got a chance to go to her own. they join us live, next. ♪ this is gonna be the best day of my life ♪ ♪ my life true business-grade internet comes with secure wifi for your business. it also comes with public wifi for your customers. not so with internet from the phone company. i would email the phone company to inquire as to why they have shortchanged these customers. but that would require wifi. switch to comcast