Democrats may take Keystone XL Pipeline vote in lame-duck session to boost endangered senator's chances of winning her run-off election

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Senate Democrats are plotting to take a vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline sometime in the next three weeks as a last-ditch effort to help a colleague win her run-off election next month.

As a result of Louisiana's jungle primary system in which every candidate seeking office appeared on the ballot on Election Day, the Pelican State did not decide whether to reelect incumbent Mary Landrieu during last week's midterms.

She is now scheduled to face-off against Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy in a Dec. 6 match-up, and polls taken late last month show the GOP representative leading her by several points. A vote on Keystone in the lame duck session could give Landrieu a boost in her oil-rich state.

Pleading with fellow Senators today, Landrieu asked them to give her a Hail Mary pass and take a vote on the legislation authorizing the XL pipeline tomorrow.

With only 15 work days until the close of the current Congress, Democrats have a long list of legislation they're trying to pass before Republicans take the reigns in January, however, and they may not want to spend a day debating legislation they plan to vote against just to save Landrieu.

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Democrats looking for a Hail 'Mary': Senate Democrats are plotting to save Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu by taking a vote on the Keystone Pipeline in the next three weeks before her runoff election against GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy

Republicans in the Senate have promised Cassidy a seat on the energy committee if he defeats Landrieu. The move undercuts one of Landrieu's chief campaign arguments, that voters in the state with a robust oil and gas industry need her and her seniority on the committee

Landrieu made an impassioned case for a vote anyway in a speech on the Senate floor this afternoon.

'I believe with a push, a significant push in the next few hours that we can actually get the votes that we need to pass the Keystone pipeline,' she said, according to the Hill. 

The Democratic Senator said she would tonight ask for unanimous consent on a vote and two hours of debate, scheduled for this evening.

'We can have the Keystone pipeline and answer the frustrations of the American people so they can... say "Oh my gosh the senators of United States of America have ears, and they have brains, they have hearts and they heard what we said," ' she went on to say.

Not to be outdone, Cassidy took to the House floor to call for a vote in his own legislative chamber on Keystone.

'The House has passed legislation to expedite the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline eight times. The Senate did not consider any of the eight,' Cassidy said, per The Hill. 

'I will now pass a bill identical to the bill the Senate is said to consider to push this issue forward. If the Senate also passes the bill it can go straight to the President's desk for signature,' he noted.

Cassidy acknowledged the Senate's reasons for suddenly taking a vote on Keystone and said, 'It is easy to wonder if the Senate is only considering this because of politics.'

'Even so,' he added, 'I hope the Senate and the President do the right thing and pass this legislation creating thousands of jobs.'

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy immediately approved Cassidy's request and said the House would vote on Keystone tomorrow. 

The solid black and gray lines on the map shows already built portions of the Keystone Pipeline. The red line represents the path of the proposed XL portion that Congress is currently debating

Senate Minority Leader Senator and soon to be Majority Leader Mitch McConnell arrived to work this morning on Capitol Hill with a smile on his face and an extra bounce in his step.  As a result of last week's Republican victories, McConnell is slated to become the next leader of the Senate in January, as long as he wins the approval of his party tomorrow in a formal vote

Just five weeks away from a previously scheduled holiday recess beginning in mid December, Senate Democrats must prioritize which pieces of legislation they want to push through before acceding power to the GOP, and Keystone may not make the list.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated in a speech from the Senate floor today that he may call for votes issues at the heart of the Democratic agenda such as an increase in the minimum wage, equal pay for equal work and federal student loan debt relief.  

Approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline may be pushed aside until the new Congress convenes as it is strongly supported by Republicans. GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner have already said it will be among the first votes they schedule next year.

Back in session for the first time since the election today, members of the Senate Appropriations Committee will first hear testimony on the Obama administration's request for $6.2 billion in emergency funding to prevent an Ebola outbreak in the U.S.

The bulk of the money would be put toward measures to strengthen public health systems in the U.S., West Africa and other countries susceptible to an Ebola epidemic. It would also go toward toward the creation and purchase of Ebola vaccines.

The rest, $1.5 billion, would be set aside in case of future emergencies.

President Barack Obama has told Congress that approving the funding before the end of the year is at the top of his personal agenda, and Democrats are likely to oblige.

Tomorrow the House and Senate will take a new vote on leadership positions within both political parties. No major shake ups are expected, with Harry Reid continuing as the foremost Democrat in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi keeping her position as the highest-ranking Democrat in the House.

John Boehner is also set to maintain his position as speaker of the House. Mitch McConnell is certain to move up to Senate majority leader. 

If Boehner is challenged for his position, which conservatives have at times threatened, that angst will be unleashed in a dramatic floor vote in January once new representatives have taken the oath of office.

While Republicans already rule the roost in the House and can take up whatever bills they choose in the coming weeks, Democrats now have to decide whether to ram through their preferred legislation in Senate while they still have the chance. That strategy risks alienating the Republicans they'll be answering to next year. 

In a show of good faith to their GOP counterparts, they may, however, stay focused on solving pressing issues such as coming to an agreement to keep the government up and running through next year.

In a floor speech today McConnell tried to steer Democrats in that direction, telling his colleagues 'in the weeks that remain in this Congress, we should work to accomplish the essential tasks of funding the government and preventing retroactive tax hikes.'

He also pushed for a renewal of legislation passed earlier this fall that gave the Department of Defense the authority to train and equip Syrian rebels willing to to go to battle against ISIS and funding to ward off an escalation of the international Ebola crisis.

'The actions of the next few weeks could help set a positive tone for the work of the next Congress — it’s a tone that will depend largely on the Administration’s willingness to respect the message sent last Tuesday,' McConnell said.

Referencing the White House's meeting with congressional leaders last Friday, McConnell said 'there’s a lot both parties can accomplish together over the next couple years. I hope that happens. I’m optimistic.'

The current resolution to fund the government expires on Dec. 11, just one day before lawmakers plan to recess until early January. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees are currently discussing a $1 trillion spending bill that would expire at the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Conservatives in the Senate, including likely Budget Committee Chairman Jeff Sessions and Ted Cruz, are pushing for a stop-gap solution that would carry the government through the holidays and into a Republican-run legislature.

They are also pressuring Senate Republican leadership to use the budgetary process to stop President Obama from issuing green cards to millions of illegal immigrants as he has promised to do before the end of the year.

Class Photo: New Republican Senators are on Capitol Hill today meeting with McConnell, center, and getting the lay of the land. They are pictured here from left to right: David Perdue or Georgia, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mike Rounds of South Dakota,  Joni Ernst of Iowa, McConnell, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Steve Daines of Minnesota

Speaking from the Senate floor today, McConnell implored his Democratic colleagues to take votes in the lame duck session only on pressing legislation and leave consequential votes until after January, when incoming senators will be able to officially join the debate

In a op-ed this week on Politico, Sessions railed against Obama's 'open-borders extremism' and laid out a plan to starve the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the funding it needs to put the president's plan.

'It cannot be implemented if Congress simply includes routine language on any government funding bill prohibiting the expenditure of funds for this unlawful purpose,' Sessions stated. 'This is the same way we prevented the President from closing Guantanamo Bay. Such application of congressional power is ordinary, unexceptional, and used thousands of times.

'Congress has the power of the purse. The President cannot spend a dime unless Congress appropriates it.' 

Sessions argued that Republicans 'must force' Democrats to vote on Obama's 'executive amnesty.'

'We cannot surrender Congress’ most powerful Constitutional tool before a single newly elected Republican is sworn-in,' he said, claiming it would 'betray' the voters who ushered Republicans into power in the Senate. 

Sessions joined Cruz and Sens. Mike Crapo, Mike Lee, Pat Roberts and David Vitter in sending Reid a letter last week claiming they would use 'all procedural means necessary' to stop Obama from taking executive action.

While McConnell has vocally opposed Obama's strategy, saying it was akin to 'waving a red flag in front of a bull' and would incite conservatives in Congress to retaliate, he has also stated that he would not allow his caucus use a government shut down as a tactic to strong arm Democrats.

Today McConnell again pleaded with the president not to act on immigration by himself. 

The president 'has a duty to help build the trust we all need to move forward together, not to double-down on old ways of doing business,' he said. 

'That’s why I think moving forward with the unilateral action on immigration he’s planned would be a big mistake,' the GOP leader added.

Obama has explicitly said he will issue an executive order addressing the broken immigration system sometime before the end of the calendar year, though he has not yet specified a date or the details of his intended actions.

He is expected to wait to make an announcement until after a new budget is officially passed. That has the added benefit of coming after Landrieu's election, as well. If Obama acts before polls are closed, Republican voters could be inspired to flood the ballot box as a means of showing their opposition to the president's immigration reforms.

Obama has said the only way for Republican lawmakers to stop him from going around Congress to repair the immigration process is to pass a comprehensive reform package immediately. The Senate already agreed to the legislation but Boehner has said repeatedly there's no way he'll allow it to come to the floor in the House.

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid returned to the Capitol today looking noticeably less pleasant than his GOP counterpart. Following a sweep for the GOP in the midterm elections, the balance of power in the Senate will shift from Reid to McConnell

Instead, both the House and the Senate will likely set aside time in the next few weeks to pass a new National Defense Authorization Act as well as a delayed sunset provision for the Syrian training program.

The legislative branch may also consider an Authorization for Use of Military Force, AUMF, agreement that would allow the U.S. to continue bombing Iraq and Syria and would give the Commander in Chief permission to launch a military assault on any other country ISIS may invade.

That measure is likely to be pushed off until the next legislative session, however, in order to give new members of Congress the opportunity to have their say in the expanding military operation.

For now, the president has said he will continue to strike Iraq and Syria under the authority he believes the Commander in Chief was granted under a previous AUMF. 

Also on the legislative agenda this month is the possibility of new sanctions against Iran if it does not meet at Nov. 24 deadline imposed by the U.S. to abide by proposed restrictions on its nuclear program.

Other issues that could potentially come up are presidential nominations - particularly to empty ambassadorships, the extension of more than 50 tax breaks that recently expired and changes to surveillance laws that would reign in the National Security Agency.

'I think one of the indicators will be nominations and whether we can move a significant amount,' Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, told The New York Times yesterday.

'If we can move some of these things in an expeditious way, I think that will indicate there is an opportunity for some working relationship.'

One area Democrats are likely to stay away from until next year out of respect for Republicans is confirmation hearings for Loretta Lynch, the president's pick to be the next attorney general.

'Our Republican colleagues don't want it during the lame duck and I think we're going to accede to that request,' New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told CNN.

'When they get to know her, they'll support her,' he said. 'Why poison the well?'

He then added, 'The likelihood is it won't be in the lame duck.'