When Obama’s Veto Threat Is Serious

White House veto threats, which come in the form of “Statements of Administration Policy” sent to reporters by the Office of Management and Budget, usually adhere to a standard format.

“If the president were presented with this legislation, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto this bill,” goes the language used for years, most recently with respect to House-passed bills to restrict abortion, build the Keystone XL pipeline, and delay Homeland Security Department funding in protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.

Such a construction has two effects: It confirms that the final decision resides with the president himself, and it keeps the chief executive’s options open until the bill actually arrives on his desk.

But in the run-up to Tuesday’s House vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (its 56th such vote), the Obama team’s veto warning deployed slightly blunter verbiage: “If the president were presented with H.R. 596, he would veto it.”

OMB did not respond to Government Executive inquiries as to whether there is a strategy in the subtle change.

But on Tuesday, when the White House issued its statement against the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2015, which the House is voting on Wednesday, it went back to the familiar, more tentative, wording.