NORFOLK, Va. - A small group protested on Thursday in downtown Norfolk about the inclusion of a controversial pipeline in the debt ceiling bill.
"We live in a representative democracy. We don't plop one project into a massive appropriations bill," said Lynn Godfrey from the Sierra Club.
The provision of the bill would fast-track a natural gas pipeline going from West Virginia into Western Virginia.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline has been controversial and faced a stalemate. It has the attention of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), who put up an amendment to strip the provision out of the bill, but it ultimately failed before the Senate's 63-36 approval of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and suspending the debt ceiling.
"This has nothing to do with the debt ceiling and it shouldn't have been added. It hurts Virginia," Kaine said.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) also said he was supportive of Kaine's proposed amendment.
The group rallying against the pipeline wants the two to vote against the bill entirely if the provision is not removed.
"That's our fellow residents. That's our fellow citizens. The same thing can happen here," said Godfrey.
That part of the bill also led in part Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Virginia) to vote against it.
The three other members of Congress who represent this region of Virginia voted for the bill, including Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia).
"It was a compromise. It was the right thing to do," Kiggans said.
The bill caps non-defense spending and rescinds some non-spent COVID relief money as well as some money budgeted for the IRS.
It will raise the debt ceiling until 2025.
Kiggans supported the bill despite some opposition from the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
"This bill is truly a compromise. It's representative of divided government, which is what we have right now," Kiggans said. "We needed to find a place in the middle where both sides gave a little and both sides got a little."
It would increase defense spending by about three percent, which Kiggans says is below the rate of inflation.
"We are watching what's going on with China and Asia. I would like to beef up defense more," she said.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act now heads to the president's desk.
