Latest news with #HouseofRepresentativesWaysandMeansCommittee
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House GOP cuts, but not kills, wind and solar tax credits
House Republicans are narrowing in on a compromise within the party over the fate of some clean energy tax credits, and it's less extreme than the wind and solar industries' worst fears. Draft budget legislation released Monday by the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee targets nearly all of the clean energy tax credits in the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act, with some listed for immediate repeal and others given new phaseout deadlines and hung with additional supply chain restrictions. Some of the proposed cuts, especially to EV credits, have been long-anticipated. On others — including credits for hydrogen and nuclear power, as well as a provision that allows the credits to be traded between investors — the draft takes a more aggressive posture than what will likely be able to survive scrutiny by more moderate Republicans in the full House and their peers in the Senate. But on the so-called 'tech-neutral' production and investment credits, which primarily benefit wind and solar, a consensus is forming around the idea that they should be phased out earlier than originally planned but not killed overnight, Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-N.D.) told Semafor. The wind and solar credits, she said, are 'providing the wrong incentive and signal to investors in energy projects. Right now, in the US, we need a lot more generation, but we don't need a lot more wind and solar, because that's what's already flooding the queues.' For renewable energy developers, the bottom line from the committee's proposal is: Prepare to say goodbye to wind and solar credits sooner than you might prefer. Because of the exceptionally wide Republican majority on the Ways and Means Committee, and because many of the IRA's more vocal Republican backers don't sit on it, the draft that will go up for a vote today is probably in its most conservative iteration. It advances the phaseout of the wind and solar credits by three years relative to the IRA, and requires that they be operational by 2032, rather than merely under construction, to be eligible. Compared to the outright, immediate repeal a group of 38 House Republicans demanded this month, that's not so bad. The political animus many Republicans felt toward the IRA, as a manifestation of Biden's 'green new scam,' has been tempered by all the alarm bells that are now ringing about electricity shortages, which even President Donald Trump has framed as a national 'emergency.' Against that background, it's less palatable to reflexively vote against tax incentives that put more electrons on the grid. Still, negotiations going forward will likely focus on the timing and the degree to which use of the credits should be constrained if the hardware contains parts from China or other problematic countries; it's hard to imagine a bill reaching Trump's desk in which the credits go unblemished. 'The goal for [Ways and Means committee chairman] Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) is to cut enough from the IRA for conservatives, but still create a product that can potentially survive in the Senate. I think he's gotten really close to the mark on that goal,' said Emily Domenech, senior vice president at the consulting firm Boundary Stone and former advisor to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Congressional Republicans, Domenech said, are more interested in solving the country's energy problems through permitting reform than through spending taxpayers' money. But it's clear that if the solar and wind credits disappeared overnight, US power prices would jump up, because for most utilities renewables are the cheapest and fastest way to add power. So what Republicans are offering is a test of whether gas turbines or other power sources can catch up in the next few years. The renewable energy industry is already bracing for a phaseout of tax incentives. In fact, the cuts proposed yesterday were sufficiently less draconian than industry investors had feared that the share prices for some large US solar companies jumped. Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said her main goal in the Congressional budget negotiation is to secure 'as long as possible, for as much as possible, with as much consistency as possible.' She declined to comment on whether the solar industry will ever be ready to thrive without tax support. But she said uncertainty about the credits' fate is already causing the $70 billion US solar industry to hit the brakes on spending and construction. 'Federal incentives for clean energy development are some of the best tools we have to protect American energy independence, shore up domestic manufacturing, and attract cutting-edge industries to the U.S.,' said Tom Starrs, vice president of government and public affairs at EDP Renewables North America. Whatever Republicans manage to get past Democrats in the House, the battle will likely get tougher in the Senate, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) told reporters. 'Dismantling the IRA clean energy tax credits will kill jobs, it will create chaos in the business community, and it will raise energy costs for families already struggling to get by,' she said. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are still divided over whether to pull back California's legal ability to set its own vehicle emissions standards, my colleague Burgess Everett reported. A growing number of US clean tech companies are thinking about relocating to the UK or Europe. Other Republican budget proposals this week asked for sweeping cuts to federal grants and loans that had been designed to entice large climate tech commercialization investments in the US.
USA Today
12-05-2025
- Health
- USA Today
Trump open to Medicaid work requirements as GOP debates spending cuts
Trump open to Medicaid work requirements as GOP debates spending cuts Show Caption Hide Caption Families face mental healthcare barriers as Medicare services decrease Hear from Heather Preston, an adoptive mother of five, as she shares the barriers faced in finding her children adequate mental healthcare. U.S. President Donald Trump "shows an openness" to work requirements for Medicaid, Jason Smith, chair of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, said on Fox News Sunday, as lawmakers try to agree on spending cuts to partly offset the cost of a sweeping tax-cut bill. Congressional Republicans are weighing steep cuts to Medicaid in their efforts to piece together a landmark tax-cut bill they hope to enact by July 4. Medicaid provides healthcare coverage to 83 million low-income people and is jointly funded by the federal government and states. One option with broad Republican support is to require a minimum work requirement for adult recipients. "The president has been very clear he does not want to cut benefits for individuals on Medicaid and Medicare. He wants to create efficiencies and reforms. He shows an openness to work requirements," Smith said on Sunday. In case you missed it: Americans borrowed $74 billion to cover medical bills. Here's who paid the most. Medicaid is on the list of programs House Republicans who advocate deep spending cuts are eyeing as they seek a way to reduce federal spending by as much as $2 trillion over the next decade. The cuts would help cover the cost of extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts in a bill that nonpartisan analysts say could add $5.8 trillion to the nation's $36 trillion in debt over the next decade. There are deep divisions among congressional Republicans about how to proceed on Medicaid. Most adults on Medicaid work full- or part-time, and most who do not are full-time caregivers or disabled, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A federal Medicaid work requirement could lead to as many as 5.2 million adults aged 19 to 55 losing eligibility, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization. "You're talking about really ripping away healthcare for millions of Americans, for seniors who are receiving skilled nursing, for working families, for children," said Representative Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Colorado, on MSNBC's news program The Weekend. Other federal welfare programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, have work requirements for some recipients. Republicans have also floated expanded work requirements for SNAP to shrink agricultural spending in line with the House budget plan. Asked by host Shannon Bream about whether the tax bill would impose higher taxes on high-income individuals, Smith said Republicans' priority is to provide tax relief for small businesses, working families and farmers. "There's no problem to eliminate loopholes that the wealthy have benefited from to make sure that working-class Americans aren't paying taxes on tips," Smith said. Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter, Marguerita Choy and Rod Nickel
Time of India
05-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
Trump 'shows an openness' to Medicaid work requirements, committee chair says
Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump "shows an openness" to work requirements for Medicaid, Jason Smith, chair of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, said on Fox News Sunday, as lawmakers try to agree on spending cuts to partly offset the cost of a sweeping tax-cut bill . Congressional Republicans are weighing steep cuts to Medicaid in their efforts to piece together a landmark tax-cut bill they hope to enact by July 4. Medicaid provides healthcare coverage to 83 million low-income people and is jointly funded by the federal government and states. One option with broad Republican support is to require a minimum work requirement for adult recipients. "The president has been very clear he does not want to cut benefits for individuals on Medicaid and Medicare. He wants to create efficiencies and reforms. He shows an openness to work requirements," Smith said on Sunday. Medicaid is on the list of programs House Republicans who advocate deep spending cuts are eyeing as they seek a way to reduce federal spending by as much as $2 trillion over the next decade. The cuts would help cover the cost of extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts in a bill that nonpartisan analysts say could add $5.8 trillion to the nation's $36 trillion in debt over the next decade. There are deep divisions among congressional Republicans about how to proceed on Medicaid. Most adults on Medicaid work full- or part-time, and most who do not are full-time caregivers or disabled, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A federal Medicaid work requirement could lead to as many as 5.2 million adults aged 19 to 55 losing eligibility, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization. "You're talking about really ripping away healthcare for millions of Americans, for seniors who are receiving skilled nursing, for working families, for children," said Representative Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Colorado, on MSNBC's news program The Weekend. Other federal welfare programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, have work requirements for some recipients. Republicans have also floated expanded work requirements for SNAP to shrink agricultural spending in line with the House budget plan. Asked by host Shannon Bream about whether the tax bill would impose higher taxes on high-income individuals, Smith said Republicans' priority is to provide tax relief for small businesses, working families and farmers. "There's no problem to eliminate loopholes that the wealthy have benefited from to make sure that working-class Americans aren't paying taxes on tips," Smith said.
