Restart Build Back Better negotiations with prioritized climate provisions, say House Democrats
The more than $555 billion in climate investments proposed in the $2 trillion Build Back Better Act could serve as the building block to restart negotiations on the sweeping social spending bill, according to 89 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Leading the world in limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require a monumental effort,” they wrote in a March 14 letter sent to Biden. “We must take action on policies you have proposed to support American families and address the threat of climate change. Your leadership in these negotiations will ensure that we can pass on a safe, healthy and vibrant society and planet to our children.”
H.R. 5376 — which the House approved in November 2021 with a 220-213 vote — stalled when it reached the evenly split U.S. Senate, where Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) refused to support it. Now Democratic lawmakers want Biden to get the ball rolling on the bill again.
Inaction on the climate crisis now, they wrote, will mean irreversible consequences later.
“Given the widespread agreement in the U.S. Senate for House-passed climate provisions, we have an opportunity to recommence negotiations with climate serving as a key starting point,” the Democrats wrote.
The letter is signed by six House committee chairs, all Democratic members of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, all eight members of leadership of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, 26 members of the New Democrat Coalition, and 52 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman (NY), Nikema Williams (GA) and Sean Casten (IL) led the letter. Bowman and Williams are CPC members, while Casten is a member of the New Democrat Coalition.
“Restarting negotiations with climate action is the clearest if not the only path forward to deliver tangible results to the American people,” Rep. Casten said in a statement on Monday. “We’re living through a code-red moment for the planet — this can’t wait any longer.”
Casten said a “window of action” exists to get the bill passed with a clean energy leader in the White House, science-affirming majorities in Congress, and a mandate from Americans that lawmakers deliver on their climate promises.
“Every day we fail to reach an agreement on the baseline climate investments passed by the House is a day American families and businesses pay the price at the pumps and oil-rich autocrats profit,” he said.
Rep. Bowman pointed out that severe weather disasters like last year’s Hurricane Ida, which devastated his district, are one of many climate change indicators.
In fact, the Feb. 28 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that “any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all.”
“As the latest IPCC report has reminded us, climate change will rapidly outpace our ability to adapt if we fail to shift away from oil and gas as soon as possible,” Bowman said. “And in the midst of escalating wars caused by fossil-fueled authoritarianism, it is clearer than ever that we need historic investments in clean energy now.”
Rep. Williams agreed, reiterating that the nation is already starting to see the impacts of climate change. “So we have to act fast to tackle the climate crisis while we still can,” she said. “To Build a Better America, President Biden must start reconciliation negotiations with climate action as a goal. We can’t afford to have our children and grandchildren foot the bill for something we can address now.”
Several organizations endorsed the lawmakers’ letter, including the Climate Action Campaign, Earthjustice, the Environmental Defense Fund, Environment America, Evergreen Action, the League of Conservation Voters, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Sunrise, and U.S. PIRG.
Along with Manchin, U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) are among those who did not sign the letter.
