Fifty-four Democratic members of Congress have signed onto a letter asking President Joe Biden to lock in future climate change initiatives by disbursing the promised funds before he leaves office.
The letter urges the move to “avoid future politicization or manipulation of climate programs,” before President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress take over in 2025.
The president can do this “by working over the next few weeks to obligate funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” the lawmakers said.
“Obligating” the funds would make it more difficult to redirect the money, likely requiring an act of Congress to do so.
The lawmakers seek funding for programs across a broad range of governmental agencies, including the departments of Energy, Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development, the Treasury, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Postal Service.
Even if Biden declines to take this step, dismantling the Inflation Reduction Act might prove tricky. The GOP will have a very slim majority next year, and this past August, a group of 18 House Republicans asked Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to leave some aspects of the program in place, as some of the tax credits were beneficial to their constituents.
The request comes the same day the Biden administration announced it had “supported more than 23,000 climate-focused conservation contracts” through funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
Another $19.5 billion will be granted over the coming years for “climate-smart agriculture and forestry mitigation activities,” the statement said.
John Podesta, senior adviser for international climate policy, told Reuters on Dec. 3 that the Biden administration had crossed the threshold of $100 billion in grants through this legislation.
Signatories of the letter included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), sponsors of the 2019 Green New Deal resolution, which called on the federal government to take a broader role in tackling climate change.
That resolution was brought to the Senate floor by then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but failed. All Republicans, joined by four Democrats, voted no. The other Democrats voted “present.”
Similar resolutions have been tried since, without success. Ocasio-Cortez earlier this year announced a rebranding of the program as the Green New Deal for Public Housing.
Co-sponsored by another signer, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), that program seeks to secure $162 billion to $234 billion to renovate public housing units, making them more energy efficient and generating “green” jobs in the process.
