WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress and a state supreme court have thrown the political hot potato known as Keystone XL straight back onto President Barack Obama’s lap.

So loath is Obama to making a decision about the proposed oil pipeline that deliberations have entered their sixth year — a period nearly as long as Obama’s time in office. He’s blamed the endless delays on bureaucratic formalities and parochial issues in Nebraska, even when skeptics claimed the politics of the next election were giving the president cold feet.

Now the election is over, the Nebraska issue is resolved, and a bipartisan bill forcing the pipeline’s approval may soon be heading to Obama’s desk. Forces on all sides of the debate, for once, have the same demand for Obama: Just make the call.

“It’s time for the State Department and the president to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline — however they decide — because six years is beyond long enough,” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, part of the minority of Democrats supporting the pipeline.

In April, just as the State Department’s review of the pipeline was nearing an end, Obama indefinitely suspended it. Facing a difficult political climate, many Democrats had been anxious about Obama making a decision before the November midterm elections. Still, the White House said it was uncertainty about the pipeline’s route, spurred by a Nebraska court challenge, that prompted the delay.

That rationale expired Friday. The Nebraska Supreme Court tossed out the lawsuit, clearing the way for the pipeline to snake through Nebraska as previously envisioned. The State Department, which has jurisdiction because the pipeline would start in Canada, said it would pick up its review where it left off.

Republicans and some Democrats don’t want to wait for that review to play out. Wielding their newfound control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans are speeding a bill through Congress authorizing construction of the 1,179-mile pipeline, which would carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.

The House approved the bill Friday — one of the first bills taken up by Congress in 2015. The Senate planned a test vote on an identical bill Monday, with plans to deliver the final bill to Obama in short order.

Obama has threatened repeatedly to veto that bill, arguing Congress must not circumvent the executive branch’s authority. So far, Republicans haven’t shown they have the votes to override Obama’s veto.