White House: Politics A Non-Factor In Keystone Delay

The State Department’s decision to put off approving the Keystone XL pipeline was not influenced by politics, said President Obama’s top spokesman today.

Reuters reported yesterday that officials have decided to reassess the proposed Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline over concerns from environmentalists. The official who spoke said a final decision could take up to 18 months, well after the 2012 presidential election.

During a briefing with reporters, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that “none of those criteria” being used by the State Department to make a determination “are political.”

“The president has great confidence in the secretary of state, and he has confidence in a process that will take into account the criteria that he publicly said were very important,” Carney added.

The White House has signaled that although the State Department is in charge of reviewing the pipeline, Obama will have a key say regarding what ultimately happens. In a statement, the president defended the decision to reexamine the matter.

“Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood.”

Report: Decision On Keystone Pipeline Postponed

Reuters reported late Wednesday night that the Obama administration has decided to delay a decision on whether to approve a controversial oil pipeline that would stretch from Canada to Texas.

An unnamed member of the administration told the news agency that officials are considering re-routing the pipeline, opponents of which argue would pose serious risks to key water supplies located underneath its path.

The official said it could take between a year and 18 months for the administration to reassess the pipeline.

Click here to read more…

Appeals Court Upholds Health Care Mandate

By Andrea Salazar

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia today delivered a victory to President Obama and other supporters of the Affordable Care Act.

In a split opinion, the panel ruled that the federal government has the authority to require all Americans to purchase health insurance or pay a fine, even if it encroaches on individual liberties.

“The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems,” Judge Laurence Silberman wrote.

The American Center for Law and Justice brought the case, arguing that the mandate violates individual and religious freedom by forcing a people to purchase insurance.

The Supreme Court will likely rule on the law next year.

Obama Announces Educational Funding Changes

President Obama traveled to a suburb of Philadelphia this morning to unveil reforms aimed at boosting accountability levels within a federal school-readiness program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services.

During a speech in Yeadon, Pa, Obama announced new rules designed to strengthen the national Head Start program, which provides early-learning services to children of low-income families. The president told an audience gathered inside the town’s regional Head Start center that the reforms won’t require the blessing of a sharply divided Capitol Hill.

“After trying for months to work with Congress on education, we’ve decided to take matters into our own hands.”

The rules will force recipients of Head Start grants to meet new standards in order to be eligible for federal funding. Programs that fail to meet the new benchmarks will lose out.

Obama also blamed Hill Republicans for blocking his efforts to pass comprehensive education reform.

“Earlier this year, nearly every Republican in the House voted for a budget that would have cut hundreds of thousands of children from Head Start,” he said. “Their argument is that we don’t have the money…what I’ve said is we can make these investments in our children without adding to the deficit simply by asking people who make more than a million dollars a year to pay a little more in taxes.”

Report: Obama Chief Of Staff Handing Off Day-To-Day Duties

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley is handing off his day-to-day duties, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal Tuesday.

Daley, who joined the West Wing in the beginning of 2011, will reportedly be giving a set of his responsibilities to White House aide Pete Rouse, who assumed the role of interim Chief of Staff for several months following Rahm Emanuel’s departure.

The shift will likely mean giving Rouse, a longtime aide to Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), more authority to work with Congress, a move that will likely help the White House navigate through the looming struggle over the federal budget.

The Journal notes that Daley will be re-focused as the administration’s “ambassador,” primarily to the business community which Daley, a former JP Morgan Executive, is solidly in tune with.