NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Oil in pipeline under Missouri River reservoir
The Associated Press
The
Dakota Access
pipeline developer said
Monday that it has placed
oil in the pipeline under a
Missouri River reservoir in
North Dakota and that it’s
preparing to put the pipeline
into service.
Dallas-based
Energy
Transfer Partners made the
announcement in a brief
court filing with the U.S.
District Court for the District
of Columbia. The announce-
ment marks a significant
development in the long
battle over the project that will
move North Dakota oil 2000
miles through South Dakota
and Iowa to a shipping point
in Illinois. The pipeline is
three months behind schedule
due to large protests and the
objections of two American
Indian tribes who say it
threatens their water supply
and cultural sites.
ETP’s filing did not say
when the company expected
the pipeline to be completely
operating, and a spokes-
woman did not immediately
return an email seeking
additional details.
“Oil has been placed in
the Dakota Access Pipeline
underneath Lake Oahe.
Dakota Access is currently
commissioning the full pipe-
line and is preparing to place
the pipeline into service,” the
filing stated.
Despite the announce-
ment, the battle isn’t over. The
Standing Rock and Cheyenne
River Sioux tribes still have
an unresolved lawsuit that
seeks to stop the project. The
Standing Rock chairman did
not immediately return a call
seeking comment on ETP’s
announcement.
The tribes argue that a
rupture in the section that
crosses under Lake Oahe
would threaten their water
supply and sacred sites and
would prevent them from
practicing their religion,
which requires clean water.
The company disputes the
tribes’ claims and says the
$3.8 billion pipeline is safe.
The tribes in December
held up the project by
successfully pushing the
U.S. government for a full
environmental study of the
Lake Oahe crossing, which
is in southern North Dakota.
AP EXPLAINS
Trump creates office
What is the Senate’s ‘nuclear option?’
to bring business
ideas to government
WASHINGTON
(AP) and deputy national security
— President Donald Trump adviser;
Chris
Liddell,
is establishing a new White assistant to the president for
House office run by his strategic initiatives; and Reed
son-in-law that will seek to Cordish, assistant to the pres-
overhaul govern-
ident for intra-
ment
functions
governmental
using ideas from
and technology
the business sector.
initiatives.
All
T r u m p
have extensive
announced
the
business experi-
White House Office
ence.
of American Inno-
Trump
is
vation in a memo
announcing the
Monday.
“The
new office at a
office will focus
low point in his
on implementing Jared Kushner
young adminis-
policies and scaling
tration, days after
proven private-sector models the Republican bill to repeal
to spur job creation and inno- and replace the Affordable
vation,” he wrote.
Care Act, also known as
The innovation office will “Obamacare,” imploded in
be led by Jared Kushner, a the House, revealing deep
senior adviser to Trump and divides within the GOP and
daughter Ivanka Trump’s fraying tensions at the White
husband, and will report House.
directly to the president.
This effort has been
White House spokesman developing since shortly
Sean Spicer said early prior- after the inauguration, said
ities for the office will be a senior administration
modernizing technology in official, who requested
the federal government and anonymity to discuss details
overhauling the Department about the office. The group
has been meeting since then
of Veterans Affairs.
In the memo, Trump said and started talking to CEOs
the office will make recom- from various sectors about
mendations to the president ways to make changes to
“on policies and plans that federal programs. Areas its
improve government opera- personnel hope to tackle
tions and services, improve include overhauling the
the quality of life for Amer- Department of Veterans
icans now and in the future, Affairs, improving work-
force development and
and spur job creation.”
Among those working targeting opioid addiction.
Ivanka Trump, who has a
on the effort are National
Economic Council director West Wing office but no offi-
Gary Cohn; Dina Powell, cial job, will be involved with
senior counselor to the presi- issues of interest to her, such
dent for economic initiatives as workforce development.
Visit to White House by intel
chairman clouds investigation
WASHINGTON (AP) —
House intelligence chairman
Devin Nunes went to the
White House grounds to
review intelligence reports
and meet the secret source
behind his claim that commu-
nications involving asso-
ciates of President Donald
Trump were caught up in
“incidental”
surveillance,
the Republican congressman
said Monday.
Nunes’
revelation
prompted the top Democrat
on the committee, Rep. Adam
Schiff, as well as the Demo-
cratic leaders in the House
and Senate, to call on Nunes
to recuse himself from the
committee’s Russia probe.
Schiff said Nunes’ connec-
tions to the White House
have raised insurmountable
public doubts about whether
the committee could credibly
investigate the president’s
campaign associates.
“I believe the public
cannot have the necessary
confidence that matters
involving the president’s
campaign or transition team
can be objectively inves-
tigated or overseen by the
chairman,” Schiff said in a
statement Monday.
Nunes confirmed Monday
that he met with the source at
the White House complex,
but he denied coordinating
with the president’s aides.
After reviewing the
information last week, Nunes
called a news conference to
announce that U.S. spy agen-
cies may have inadvertently
captured Trump and his asso-
ciates in routine targeting of
foreigners’ communications.
Trump quickly seized on the
statements as at least partial
vindication for his assertion
that President Barack Obama
tapped his phones at Trump
Tower — though Nunes,
Schiff and FBI Director
James Comey have said there
is no such evidence.
The Senate intelligence
committee is also conducting
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File
House Intelligence Com-
mittee Chairman Rep.
Devin
Nunes,
R-Calif,
speaks March 22 with re-
porters outside the White
House in Washington fol-
lowing a meeting with
President Donald Trump.
an investigation into Russia’s
interference in the election and
possible ties with the Trump
campaign. On Monday, it
announced that Trump’s
son-in-law, Jared Kushner,
has agreed to be interviewed.
The White House confirmed
that Kushner, a senior Trump
adviser, had volunteered to be
interviewed about arranging
meetings with the Russian
ambassador and other offi-
cials.
Kushner is the fourth
Trump associate to offer to be
interviewed by the congres-
sional committees looking
into the murky Russia ties.
Trump’s former campaign
chairman, Paul Manafort,
Trump adviser Carter Page
and Trump associate Roger
Stone last week volunteered
to speak as well.
“Mr.
Kushner
will
certainly not be the last
person the committee calls to
give testimony, but we expect
him to be able to provide
answers to key questions that
have arisen in our inquiry,”
the chairman, Sen. Richard
Burr of North Carolina, and
the top Democrat, Mark
Warner of Virginia, said in a
joint statement Monday in a
sign of bipartisanship.
WASHINGTON (AP) —
To blow up the rules or not?
Senate Republicans and
Democrats appear to be
on collision course over
President Donald Trump’s
nominee to the Supreme
Court and whether to
changes Senate rules to get
him confirmed.
Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., has
announced that he will
vote no on the nomination
of Judge Neil Gorsuch
and lead a filibuster of
the selection. More than a
dozen Democrats also have
announced their opposition
and will try to thwart GOP
efforts to press ahead on
the choice. Such a step
would require 60 votes in
the 100-seat Senate, but
Republicans only hold a
52-48 majority.
The pressure is on
Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., to
change the parliamentary
rules for Supreme Court
nominees, lowering the
threshold to a simple
majority. Or, as Trump once
put it, “go nuclear.”
What is the nuclear option?
Under that option, nomi-
nations could be approved
with a simple majority in
the 100-member Senate.
Now, it takes 60 votes to
clear parliamentary hurdles
and set up an up-or-down
vote on the nominee.
AP file photos
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of N.Y. (left) and Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. (right) speak with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Senate Republicans and Democrats appear to be on collision course over
President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court and whether to changes
Senate rules to get him confirmed.
It’s happened before
This procedural maneuver
has recent precedent. In
2013, Democrats were in the
majority under the leadership
of Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada
and upset about the blockage
of President Barack Obama’s
nominees to a powerful
appellate court. The Demo-
crats pushed through a rules
change lowering the vote
threshold on all nominees
except for the Supreme Court
from 60 to a simple majority.
The Supreme Court was
exempted at the time as part
of a deal bringing along
Democrats reluctant to
change the rules.
At the time, McConnell
warned Democrats the
strategy would backfire:
“I say to my friends on the
other side of the aisle, you
will regret this, and you
may regret it a lot sooner
than you think.”
Before 1975, it was
even tougher for presidents
to get their nominations
through because two-thirds
of the senators present and
voting had to agree to move
forward.
Why it would be explosive
Such a rules change on
Supreme Court nominees
would be a momentous
change for the Senate,
which traditionally operates
via bipartisanship and
consent from all senators.
Some believe it could begin
to unravel Senate traditions
at a hyper-partisan moment
in politics and perhaps end
up in the complete elimi-
nation of the filibuster even
for legislation, which would
mean an entirely different
Senate from the one that’s
existed for decades.
Senate experts note that
the filibuster is not enshrined
in the Constitution and fili-
bustering nominees is a rela-
tively recent phenomenon.
Cloture — the procedural
motion to end a filibuster
— was attempted for the
first time on a nominee in
1968 after President Lyndon
Johnson tapped Abe Fortas
as chief justice of the U.S.,
according to the Congres-
sional Research Service.
The cloture attempt
failed and the nomination
was withdrawn.
McConnell is an institu-
tionalist who has made clear
he does not favor invoking
the nuclear option, but he has
not ruled it out for Gorsuch.
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