FROM: Sara Chieffo, VP of Government Affairs, LCV
TO: Interested Parties
MEMO: What is at stake with reconciliation & extreme, illegitimate CRAs as the House returns

LCV is watching the House closely this week as committees kick off the process of writing their pieces of their budget reconciliation bill, which has the potential to become one of the most harmful, costly and sweeping pieces of legislation in recent history. With their extremely narrow majority, and a president whose approval numbers are in steep decline, House Republicans have to decide whether they stand with billionaire executives or hardworking families who stand to face job loss, dirtier air and water, and increased costs across the board.

Time and time again we have seen that people, especially those in districts represented by Republicans, are benefiting from the clean energy initiatives that are creating good jobs, lowering costs, and making us more competitive, while helping cut down on the pollution that threatens our air, water, and lands. Sadly, congressional Republicans have made abundantly clear that they are out of touch with what people want by instead advancing legislation that prioritizes Big Oil and Big Polluters over the American people.

It is wrong to cut essential programs and services to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. We will be doing everything we can to make sure people in Washington and back home in members’ districts are hearing and seeing what is happening as this bill takes shape. Here are some of the key committees and potential issues we will be watching closely as this process unfolds:

This week’s outlook:

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

• How hard will they attack lower emission vehicles? Rolling back funding for charging infrastructure and tacking additional fees on hybrid and electric vehicles will limit consumers’ ability to reduce costs, while at the same time playing into the hands of Big Oil executives who stand to profit off the reduction of electric vehicles.

Homeland Security Committee and Judiciary Committee

• Yesterday, the Homeland Security Committee approved $46 billion for the racist, ineffective and environmentally destructive border wall. The reconciliation bill grants Trump and his administration a total of $200 billion taxpayer dollars across the Homeland and Judiciary Committees — funding that instead could be used to improve people’s lives through essential programs like emergency response, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP and more. Funding Trump’s mass deportation agenda and continuing attacks against constitutionally protected rights is a direct threat to civil liberties and our democracy.
• To what lengths will the extreme Republicans go to hand Trump more power and eliminate protections for public health, consumers, and the environment so that polluters can do as they please? The Judiciary Committee is considering a provision akin to the REINS Act, which effectively blocks critical public protections, and requires a five-year process for Congressional approval of all existing rules. This is a sweeping tool for Trump to slash and burn environmental and public health safeguards and for polluters and other corporate interests to halt new safeguards and implementation of existing laws.

Look Ahead for the Next Two Weeks:

Natural Resources Committee

• How many of our public lands will they sell off to polluting interests? We expect to see attempts to sell off our public lands and waters to the highest bidder to fund tax cuts for Big Oil executives and billionaires. Public lands enjoy widespread support and are engines of local economies, generating billions of dollars in revenue and supporting countless jobs in surrounding communities. The sell-off of our public lands is extremely unpopular and threatens the rights of all Americans to access nature, have clean air to breathe and water to drink, and to safeguard their culture and history.

Energy and Commerce Committee

• Will the Energy and Commerce Committee gut programs that help families buy energy-saving home appliances and make their homes more comfortable, healthy, and efficient? Home energy rebates have helped families across the country not only affordably transition to clean energy, but also lower their energy bills, reduced pollution, and spurred demand for more domestic manufacturing. With rebates hanging in the balance, families could see an increase in their home energy bills should these rebates get a funding cut.

• Will polluters get their way and have the committee end a program that fixes methane leaks and puts a fee on wasted methane gas? This commonsense program reduces the amount of gas wasted each day while being transported from wells to power plants and people’s homes; scrapping it would only mean higher energy costs for families. The methane fee only applies to oil and gas companies who pollute above a certain threshold which many in the industry are already meeting. This provision helps the dirtiest companies at the expense of communities, consumers and our climate.
• Will they cut funding for programs that reduce air pollution in communities across the country, including programs meant to address air pollution at schools, ports, near highways, and more? Families could see rates of asthma and cancer go up while polluters see tax breaks.

Agriculture Committee

• Will the Agriculture Committee turn its back on farmers? Climate-smart agriculture and conservation funding helps farmers be more sustainable and resilient while they continue to put food on the table in communities across the country. Many farmers have already been left holding the bag with huge cost burdens after the Trump administration backed out of contracts as part of their funding freeze. We could see House Republicans cut or redirect critical conservation funding towards padding the pockets of corporate agribusinesses rather than assisting smaller and family-run farms invest in practices to fight the climate crisis, improve soil health, protect our water and lands, and ensure a sustainable food system for generations to come.

Ways and Means Committee

• Are job-creating and energy cost-reducing tax investments still on the chopping block? Despite 21 House Republicans opposing cuts to clean energy tax credits, the debate over them has continued. Multiple expert analyses underscore that gutting these credits will increase energy costs — a growing concern for families across the country. A recent NERA study found that repealing key clean energy tax credits would raise average U.S. residential electricity prices by nearly 7% by 2026 – equating to an average yearly increase of more than $110 for the average American residential customer. Another analysis released by Aurora Energy Research found that removing these clean energy tax credits would not only result in job loss and cancelled projects, but also would increase families’ energy bills with key spikes across the country, including a whopping $468 in New York and $348 in Texas in 2040. Clean energy is the fastest and cheapest form of energy to bring online and is an important solution to meeting rising energy demands driven by data centers, manufacturing growth, and electrification. These tax credits are helping lower energy costs for hardworking families and businesses across the country, while also creating good jobs and revitalizing communities that have suffered from disinvestment over the last several decades as manufacturing and other blue collar jobs have been offshored.

Congressional Review Act Votes This Week

This week we will also see House votes on illegitimate Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions of disapproval H.J. Res 87, H.J. Res 88, and H.J. Res 89, that seek to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s waivers to California for Advanced Clean Trucks, Advanced Clean Cars II, and Heavy-Duty Vehicles Omnibus rules that limit tailpipe pollution.

• Eliminating these waivers would undermine critical cleaner vehicle standards that help to reduce health-harming transportation pollution, reduce the cost of operating a car or truck, and address the climate crisis.
• Illegally attempting to use the CRA to eliminate this waiver granted to one state, in direct contrivance to the statute, decades of precedent, the Government Accountability Office, and Senate Parliamentarian, would also open the floodgates for other attempts to block state rights as members of Congress could attempt to remove other state waivers, such as the hundreds provided to states for various portions of Medicaid, using a similar, illegitimate, co-opted CRA process.
• This is an illegitimate power grab attempt by extreme Republicans that must be called out for what it is as it will destabilize other laws and preemption waivers in areas such as Medicaid and SNAP.

The House also plans to vote on another illegitimate CRA resolution of disapproval on an Endangered Species Act rule to protect the longfin smelt – a rule that was finalized outside of the statutorily indicated “lookback” period for the 119th Congress.

• Eliminating protections for this small fish would threaten the species survival.
• Taken together with the other three illegitimate CRA resolutions, on full display are Congressional Republicans’ distaste for anything that stands in their way of giving handouts to their polluter cronies and fossil fuel funders.
• These actions underscore just how little respect extreme Republicans have for the rule of law, as we are seeing from the Trump administration’s selective compliance with statute, rules, and judicial rulings.

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