EXCLUSIVE-Keep Pipeline out of Tax Cuts, Senators Tell Reid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five U.S. senators urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to reject Republican efforts to make approval of the Keystone XL pipeline part of a payroll tax cut bill expected to pass through Congress in the next two weeks.

"We strongly oppose the inclusion of provisions that require approval of this pipeline in an arbitrary timeframe in any legislative package moving forward in the Senate," wrote senators Bernie Sanders, an independent, along with Democrats Ron Wyden, Patrick Leahy, Sheldon Whitehouse and Frank Lautenberg, in a letter to Reid Tuesday.