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- House Republicans want to strip billions of dollars in funding for energy projects as part of their debt ceiling bill.
- The latest changes were agreed to in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
- The bill would reverse key parts of Biden's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
House Republicans would repeal major portions of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as part of their legislation to raise the debt ceiling after negotiations that ran into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Specifically, in a 2 am markup out of the House Rules Committee, Republican leaders agreed to strip $5 billion for loans for energy infrastructure projects, $5 billion in grants for cutting pollution, $1.9 billion in grants to build transportation access to neighborhoods, $1 billion in incentives for energy-efficient building codes, and $200 million for National Park System maintenance, Politico reported Wednesday morning.
Republicans also reversed course on cutting the IRA's tax credits for ethanol and other bio-fuels, following demands to keep the credits from several GOP lawmakers who represent states that produce corn, Politico reported.
Some Republicans have also taken issue with stripping some of the IRA's funding for green energy infrastructure in their states, despite the fact that none of them voted for the IRA. Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, told reporters on Tuesday that she might oppose the bill because it could hurt the wind and solar industries.
"When it comes to the green energy, I look at South Carolina — we have a lot of solar," she said. "And now we're going to do this to increase energy prices?"
These latest changes are part of a last-minute effort by Republican leadership to get their members on board with a debt ceiling vote.
These energy and climate measures will likely be non-starters with Democrats, who celebrated the IRA as the most significant piece of climate legislation to ever be signed into law. Even before these changes to the bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced it had no chance in the upper chamber.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy insisted on Wednesday morning that the House will vote on the debt ceiling limit on Wednesday, despite several GOP House members publicly voicing their opposition to the legislation. With just a four vote margin, McCarthy has a tricky path to eke out a majority.
As it stands, the 320-page bill would also implement work requirements for Medicaid and food stamp recipients, stop Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, and repeal additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service that was passed as part of the IRA. In exchange, it would increase the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion, or through March 31, 2024, whichever comes first.
Whenever Republicans manage to pass their debt ceiling legislation, it'll be just a first step in negotiations with the White House, which is demanding to raise the limit without conditions.
Without an agreement between the Congress and the White House as soon as June, the US could default on its debt, wreaking unprecedented havoc on the American and global economies.