Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., in front of Democratic senators at a private lunch today about a provision in the deal that would expedite the approval of a natural gas pipeline. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said he got into a 'robust debate' with Sen.

Garret Graves, R-La., told reporters Wednesday that had Republicans spurned negotiations and let the nation default on its debt, it would have resulted “in the president trying to invoke the 14th Amendment,” as well as a missed opportunity for Republicans to press for spending cuts.īut that break-glass option wouldn’t be needed.

But he took the idea seriously - so seriously that the White House counsel’s office consulted at least two outside legal experts about the 14th Amendment just days before the deal was announced, people familiar with the matter said.Ī lead House negotiator in the showdown with Biden, Rep. President Joe Biden worried that there wasn’t enough time for the inevitable court challenge to play out if he went down that road.

The White House was considering the unprecedented step of bypassing Congress altogether and invoking the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states that “the validity of the public debt … shall not be questioned.” Right up until the end, the White House was exploring contingency plans in case the high-stakes talks with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling and avert economic disaster collapsed.

Peter Nicholas, Mike Memoli, Katherine Doyle, Monica Alba, Sahil Kapur and Scott Wong

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