
Democrats eye changes to climate spending clawbacks
'Clearly, their idea of a good day is to get up in the morning and try to roll back the opportunity for some clean energy,' said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member on the Finance Committee. 'I think they're going to find that what they really get out of it is higher prices, because they're reducing choices and competition in private markets.'
The Senate advanced the rescissions bill on two procedural motions Tuesday night — with Vice President JD Vance breaking 50-50 ties both times — and will kick off a marathon series of amendment votes as soon as Wednesday. It's not yet clear which, or how many, amendments could get votes.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and fellow appropriators Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voted against moving forward.
Collins said in a statement, 'The sparse text that was sent to Congress included very little detail and does not give an accounting of the specific program cuts that would total $9.4 billion. For example, there are $2.5 billion in cuts to the Development Assistance account, which covers everything from basic education, to water and sanitation, to food security – but we don't know how those programs will be affected.'
Republican leaders are hoping to pass the package and send it back to the House, where a previous version passed last month, for a final vote before the weekend.
The legislation needs only a simple majority to pass, and it must get the president's signature by midnight Friday in order to rescind the funds in question.
The legislation, championed by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, would target the United States' fiscal 2025 contributions to multilateral environmental efforts such as the Montreal Protocol and the Clean Technology Fund.
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Boston Globe
8 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
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Yahoo
37 minutes ago
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