Is that a threat? White House halt signals mostly nuanced

WASHINGTON — When White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest addressed a Keystone XL Pipeline check on Tuesday, his response seemed unequivocal: “If this check passes this Congress, a boss wouldn’t pointer it.”

“Are we scold in stating this as a halt threat?” a contributor asked.

“Yes,” Earnest replied.

But when a White House released a grave halt hazard a subsequent morning — by what’s famous as a matter of administration routine — a White House seemed to ever-so-slightly dial behind a threat.

“If presented to a president, his comparison advisers would suggest that he halt this bill,” pronounced a matter from a Office of Management and Budget.

Presidential scholars and members of Congress have prolonged accepted a endorsed halt to be a softer form of antithesis than a halt hazard that comes directly from a president. And so a change Wednesday buoyed supporters of a Keystone tube project, that would couple oil fields in western Canada to a tube in Nebraska. Congressional Republicans have put a check during a tip of their agenda, observant it would emanate thousands of jobs. Environmentalists conflict it, observant oil from a Canadian connect sands would minister to tellurian warming.

The “senior adviser” halt hazard — initial used by President Reagan — mostly gives a boss “wiggle room” to negotiate a compromise, pronounced Samuel Kernell, a highbrow during a University of California, San Diego.

“If he wants to send a declarative, transparent vigilance to lawmakers that this is a deal-breaker, he’ll send a summary that he will

Because Obama hasn’t released a halt hazard personally, it doesn’t lift a same weight, scholars say. And Obama — while creation transparent that he believes a environmental concerns transcend a mercantile advantages — has not privately pronounced that he would halt it.

The matter of administration routine objected to a check on routine grounds, observant it circumvents “longstanding and proven processes for final either cross-border pipelines offer a inhabitant interest.” That language, that stopped brief of addressing a plan on a merits, is identical to a halt hazard released by a Obama administration to a prior Keystone check in 2013. That halt threat, too, came from comparison advisers — as do about 80% of Obama’s halt threats, according to a USA TODAY analysis.

“The initial thing to know is that a halt hazard is like lifting a bid in poker — it might be a steep though it might not be. Just like in high stakes poker, a doubt is key,” pronounced Charles Cameron, a Princeton University highbrow and author of Veto Bargaining: Presidents and a Politics of Negative Power

White House orator Frank Benenati referred behind to Earnest’s comments Tuesday, observant Earnest done “very clear” a boss would halt a bill. But on Capitol Hill, supporters of a Keystone plan contend they beheld a pointed change in denunciation and are speedy by it.

“It gives me some inducement to continue to try to persuade,” pronounced Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., a House unite of a Keystone bill. “I consider a lot of Democrats know in their heart that they should be for this bill. Hopefully that spills over to a boss himself. Maybe we don’t get a veto-proof domain or a ability to overturn a veto, though we get adequate domestic vigour and, usually as important, domestic cover.”

The Keystone check upheld a House final year, and Republicans have usually augmenting their infancy there. In a Senate, a check has a 60-vote, filibuster-proof domain of support, that includes during slightest 6 Democrat senators — including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

“I was really unhappy when we listened a boss contend he would halt it — or a White House,” Manchin said, editing himself in a building debate Wednesday about a source of a halt threat. He pronounced he’d acquire amendments that would urge a check so that “maybe, usually maybe, a White House will change a mind.”

The Keystone check was one of dual a White House threatened to halt in a initial 24 hours of a new Congress. The other would change a clarification of full-time practice in a Affordable Care Act, requiring employers to yield health advantages usually to 40-hour-a-week workers. The stream customary is 30 hours.

The Congressional Budget Office pronounced Wednesday that change would force 1 million people off employer-provided coverage, putting many of them into Medicaid, augmenting a necessity by $53 billion over 10 years.

Asked Tuesday if a White House would halt that check as well, Earnest said, “We would, yes.”

Wednesday, a grave halt hazard came with a stronger halt hazard language: “If a President were presented with H.R. 30, he would halt it,” OMB said.

Congressional contributor Susan Davis contributed. Follow @gregorykorte

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