House Republicans won a victory Wednesday night on their sweeping measure to raise the debt ceiling — a victory they won by offering myriad concessions, including cutting billions of dollars in clean energy tax incentives.
They passed HR 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act, 217-215, with four Republicans — Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Matt Gaetz of Florida — all supporting Democrats in joined the opposition.
The GOP leaders could only afford to lose four votes, and after days of bickering, they lost exactly that.
In a press conference immediately after the vote, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) triumphed.
“We’ve removed the debt ceiling,” he said at Statuary Hall. “The Democrats don’t have that.”
The bill addresses many longstanding Republican priorities, including energy and regulatory policy, and represents the GOP’s first attempt to extend the government’s borrowing powers before the mid-June deadline.
It also has no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate. Democrats have not yet backed away from their position that a debt ceiling hike must be “clean,” while Republicans insist there must be policy concessions. And President Joe Biden has pledged to veto it if it gets on his desk.
Furthermore, the process by which the legislation was created signals how difficult it will be for the party to reach consensus — even among itself — if negotiations with Democrats begin in earnest and a summer deadline looms.
First, GOP leaders agreed to zero out a set of clean energy tax incentives codified by the Inflation Reduction Act, which a group of grassroots Republicans initially called for as a condition of supporting the Debt Control Act.
But then the leaders had a problem: The four-member delegation from Iowa and other Midwestern Republicans didn’t like that the law would eliminate tax credits for biofuels and other alternatives vital to their state.
In the middle of Wednesday night, leaders agreed to reopen the bill protecting three specific tax credits of the Anti-Inflation Act backed by the Midwest contingent.
At the same time, Republicans took the opportunity to introduce new, additional billions of dollars in cuts in the Inflation Reduction Act to various pollution reduction, energy efficiency, and environmental justice initiatives.
“No crazy machinations”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) in the Capitol. | Francis Chung/Politics
House Republicans involved in the negotiations downplayed the scope and scale of the 11th-hour changes throughout Wednesday, insisting they were only “technical” in nature — to clarify the text, to complement the talks taking place in the Outdoors have taken place to better reflect weeks.
“Last night’s changes, to be perfectly clear, simply honored what we had already publicly said we were going to do,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus who also sits on the Rules Committee,” Wednesday said. “There was no crazy machinations.”
Roy was referring to an agreement between members to target only Inflation Reduction Act subsidies and roll back the Energy Tax Act to 2022, pre-IRA terms.
Some Republicans acknowledged that the reopening of the bill to address biofuel subsidies presented an opportunity to secure cuts elsewhere.
“There were some other things — as we’ve had more time to consider the bill — where we saw where there were savings that got broad support,” Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), Deputy McCarthy, said um to conduct internal Republican negotiations the debt limit proposal, added. “So we captured those things too.”
One of the new funding cuts not included in the original plan was a $200 million cut in deferred maintenance projects earmarked for a national park. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands, held a hearing last week highlighting that the entire sum for the modernization of San Francisco’s Presidio — located in the District of former spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi – has been provided. although that wasn’t on the bill.
Home Secretary Deb Haaland testified that she understood the result as “Congress’s intent” — an admission that angered Congressional Republicans (E&E Daily, April 20).
“I think leadership saw that and said, ‘That’s a change that we should make,’ because it was really inappropriate,” Tiffany said Wednesday.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) agreed, saying, “It’s a target-rich environment when you look at the wasteful things that Democrats have put out there.”
“More than incomprehensible”
While Republicans feel they’ve taken a big step toward solving the debt limit drama, Democrats said the GOP has opened up to criticism.
Environmentalists and their Capitol Hill allies continued to pound on some Republicans for supporting the debt ceiling bill that would eliminate clean energy tax credits, which would also boost job creation in their counties.
“Many of these Republican members have been at home in their districts and have recognized the new projects that the IRA tax credits are starting in their districts,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (DR.I.), chair of the Senate Budget Committee. at a press conference convened by the League of Conservation Voters on Wednesday. “They go home, they claim tax credits; They come here and they vote to reverse the tax credits.”
Democratic members were joined by clean energy workers to discuss how their investments in communities across the country would be jeopardized by passage of the Limit, Save, Grow Act.
The event also came amid a new seven-figure national ad campaign by LCV and Climate Power, which criticized House Republicans for “risking a global economic catastrophe to remove the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy stimulus.” who have helped supercharge America’s economic boon for clean energy, including in their own counties.”
Last week, an E&E News analysis of Climate Power data confirmed that at least 21 projects in Republican-run districts were the direct result of benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act (E&E Daily, April 21).
“We’re ready to call [Republicans] out on their hypocrisy,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) at the LCV event.
“What you’ve seen over the last 24 hours with our Republican counterparts in Iowa — we’ve seen them struggle through each other because they know the utility of these subsidies that are benefiting their communities,” she continued. “And that’s why it’s beyond irresponsible. It is beyond incomprehensible.”
“Big Victory”
MP Nancy Mace (RS.C.) backed the debt ceiling legislation. | Francis Chung/Politics
The four Republicans who make up the Iowa delegation in the House of Representatives — Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn and Randy Feenstra — released a joint statement on Wednesday afternoon, praising their “huge victory for the biofuel industry” and ours whole state”. in shielding ethanol subsidies from the budget knife of the debt ceiling.
In an interview later that day, Nunn called the early-morning meetings with his Iowa colleagues a “marathon.” He stressed the importance of the ethanol industry and drew a sharp contrast between the biofuel and electric vehicle loans, which he said were aimed at middle- and upper-class families.
“It’s something everyone uses,” he said of ethanol, noting that without ethanol, the price of gasoline goes up every summer.
At the same time, Rep. Nancy Mace (RS.C.) — who was undecided earlier Wednesday in part because of the Debt Limit Act’s removal of wind and solar tax credits — ultimately chose to support the measure without having precisely addressed concerns at all.
She told reporters she would vote “yes” after a call with McCarthy, where she said she felt “heard” about her desire to have a more substantive conversation about how Republicans are leading the way in reducing the federal deficit can take.
“We talked about it [the tax credits] too,” she said as she exited the spokesman’s office after their meeting. “I appreciate his time today and the opportunity to work with his office on what the balanced budget will look like in the future.”
When asked about Republican districts that would benefit from funding the Inflation Reduction Act for solar or battery factories, Graves dismissed the question, instead criticizing Biden’s energy policies.
He noted that the debt ceiling bill includes the GOP energy package — HR 1, the “Energy Cost Reduction Act” — and called it “a solid step forward in American energy.” The Debt Act also contains legislation that requires Congressional approval for important rules.
Finally, Graves added, “We’re not going to set a clean debt ceiling, period. … [W]We will demand that the development of the financial situation of this country change.”
Reporter Mia McCarthy contributed.
