House Republicans advanced a proposal Wednesday to cut more than $4.5 billion in environmental and fuels programs, along with assessing a new annual fee for electric vehicle drivers, as part of a major budget reconciliation bill.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s legislation is meant to save $10 billion over the next 10 years as part of the reconciliation plan, which aims to extend and expand tax cuts and pass President Donald Trump’s legislative priorities.
The spending and cutting provisions take aim mainly at the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats’ major climate change law. Cuts would come to alternative fuels for aviation and other uses, low-carbon construction, environmental reviews, neighborhood walkability and affordable transportation, among other purposes. Only unobligated money would be rolled back.
“This committee is prepared to meet its instruction and deliver on the president’s America First agenda by combining critical investments in border security, our national defense and needed modernization of America’s air traffic control system with cuts to wasteful spending and other deficit-reducing measures,” Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), the Transportation Committee’s chair, said at the Wednesday meeting in which lawmakers voted to advance the legislation.
