WASHINGTON – Before the House passage today of the Senate’s $750 billion Biden-backed health care, tax and climate bill, one provision of the bill drew some extra attention from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
The House of Representatives voted 220-207 along party lines on August 12 to pass the bill and send it to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
Before the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage in the Senate (on a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Kamala Harris), one provision of the climate portion of the bill was being litigated by Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Manchin
Capito (R-W.Va.) is the ranking member of the Senate EPW Committee. Her amendment would have prevented the funding of further regulatory overreach by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act – the provision the Obama-era EPA used to enact the Clean Power Plan. It would have removed a paragraph, which was written by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), from the bill that would include the term “greenhouse gases” into nine sections of the Clean Air Act. She challenged it because she said it violated reconciliation rules.
Capito’s amendment, however, was blocked by Senate Democrats. But later, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made a motion to have the paragraph struck from the bill. His motion passed, apparently after the parliamentarian had been convinced on a second review that the purpose of the provision was to add “greenhouse gases” into those sections.
Following the vote, the parliamentarian said the provision violated the Byrd rule, which left it exposed to a point of order. Graham, as the ranking member of the Budget Committee, was responsible for the Republican management of the bill on the floor.
So, he then raised a point of order, and the provision was removed from the final bill. Because of this, the EPA will not receive the $45 million and will not receive congressional direction to impose anti-energy regulations that every Senate Democrat voted to give the agency.
So, although Capito’s amendment to strike the EPA regulatory slush fund was defeated by a 50-50 tie vote, her efforts to enforce congressional budgetary rules that the Democrats tried to work around ensured the provision was stricken from the final bill by the Senate parliamentarian.
Because of this, the EPA will not receive the $45 million and will not receive congressional direction to impose anti-energy regulations that every Senate Democrat voted to give the agency.
“After the EPA’s recent loss before the Supreme Court on the illegal Clean Power Plan, Congress should not be providing funds for the agency to use to undertake more expansive and unauthorized rulemakings,” Capito told The West Virginia Record. “The $45 million would have been used to impose billions of dollars in regulatory burdens on our economy, especially the coal industry, and increase costs at the worst time for consumers.
“This provision was bad for West Virginia and bad for America, and I’m proud we were able to remove it from the final bill.”
Capito also called the passed bill a “reckless tax-and-spending spree package, saying Democrats voted to raise taxes on working families, kill West Virginia’s coal industry and “empower the IRS to spend more time snooping around Main Street.”
“At a time of record inflation, it’s inexplicable for them to repeat the massive over-taxing, over-spending, and over-regulating mistakes already driving us into a recession,” she said. “Throughout the Senate Democrats’ short-circuited process for ramming through this reckless legislation, I have spent a lot of time and energy exposing the harmful provisions in this partisan bill, while also offering bipartisan solutions.
“Unfortunately, however, families, employers, and workers in West Virginia already know they will soon bear the burden of this untimely, avoidable mistake.”
Capito also offered another amendment that would have enacted strong permitting reform to roll back red tape and benefit infrastructure projects. And, Capito also led efforts to keep Democrats from imposing harmful taxes on companies that would have affected broadband deployment and expansion.
The sweeping Inflation Reduction Act would raise over $700 billion in government revenue over 10 years and spend over $430 billion to reduce carbon emissions and extend subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and use the rest of the new revenue to reduce the deficit.
After its passage, Manchin told CNN the legislation he helped write is "a good balanced bill."
"I think we'll all benefit from it; the country will," Manchin told CNN. "We have energy security, that's what we were looking for. And we have the ability to invest in the energy of the future."
Manchin played a key role in shaping the legislation after he and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) reached a compromise last month. Manchin, a conservative Democrat, chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
It contains billions for clean energy while offering more support for coal and natural gas. It also includes money for national parks and health care for low-income people and coal miners with black lung disease. Manchin has received more campaign contributions this election cycle from natural gas pipeline companies than any other lawmaker.
Manchin also has prepared legislation to speed up federal permitting and make energy projects harder to block under federal acts. He also has asked that federal agencies “take all necessary actions” to streamline completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which has faced opposition from environmentalists for years.
But, Manchin’s efforts might come with a price.
According to a The Economist/YouGov poll, Manchin’s favorability has dropped among Republicans and Independents since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Based on polling from July 20 and August 7-9, Manchin’s overall favorability is down 29 percent since the bill was passed by the Senate. That rating is down 49 percent among Republicans and 26 percent among Independents. His favorability is unchanged among Democrats.