Both the Senate and House are planning votes during the lame duck session on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which has languished for years, and the votes could be timed to help the last remaining Senate race.
On the Senate side, Democratic Louisiana Sen.
Mary Landrieu is pushing for a vote.
"This has been a project that has lingered far too long. It is clearly supported by 60 or more members of this body," Landrieu said on the Senate floor Wednesday,
CNN.com reported.
A vote could endear her to voters ahead of a December 6 runoff with Republican Bill Cassidy, who currently serves in the House. Cassidy is widely favored to win the runoff since the third-highest vote-getter in the November 4 "jungle primary" also was a Republican.
The Washington Examiner's Byron York said Wednesday on Fox News Channel's
"Your World with Neil Cavuto" that a vote for the purposes of boosting Landrieu's chances is likely.
"I think it's pretty clear what's going on," York said.
Still, he noted, there is action on both sides of Capitol Hill. The House is expected to vote on a bill on Thursday sponsored by Cassidy.
"So on one side we'll have the Cassidy bill, legalizing the pipeline. On the other side we'll have the Landrieu bill on the pipeline," York said.
Despite the motivations for the legislation, York said Keystone is one of the "low-hanging fruit" after the election that Republicans and Democrats can work on. A test vote in the past had the support of 11 Democrats, he said.
The project has the support of most Americans and likely would be hard for Obama to veto if it passes with a supermajority, York said. Even if that doesn't happen during the lame duck, Republicans would need only six or seven Democrats to get the 60 votes needed for a supermajority once the new Senate is sworn in in January.
"Is the president going to veto a supermajority in Congress? We'll have to see," York said.
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