Huffman’s a No on the Debt Ceiling Deal, Citing Damage to Environmental Protection and Reduced Assistance for Struggling Americans
Press release from the office of Rep. Jared Huffman:
Representative
Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) released the following statement on his
plan to vote against H.R. 3746, the legislative agreement to suspend
the debt ceiling for 18 months in return for a host of Democratic
spending and policy concessions. Specifically, the bill cuts
non-defense spending while increasing defense spending; adds
unnecessary hurdles for vulnerable Americans to receive vital food
and financial assistance; significantly and permanently undermines
NEPA, one of our most critical environmental laws; and flouts the
opposition of climate activists and environmental justice groups by
legislatively greenlighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which has a
climate impact equivalent to building 26 new coal-fired power plants.
Rep. Jared Huffman
“Agreeing
to a one-sided negotiation under threat of default has produced a bad
deal and a terrible precedent. While Republicans’ egregious
hostage-taking accomplished very little debt or deficit reduction,
the temporary social service cuts they demanded fall unconscionably
on vulnerable Americans who are struggling just to have food to eat.
And those who characterize the environmental rollbacks in this ‘deal’
as merely procedural reforms are being disingenuous. These are
permanent, substantive reductions in environmental protection that
Republicans and the fossil fuel industry have been seeking for many
years. Taken together with the abominable approval of the Mountain
Valley Pipeline, this deal is a major step backward from the climate
and environmental justice wins we delivered in the last Congress.
And since Democrats got nothing on the permitting reform item we
actually need (electrical transmission), Republicans will use that as
leverage to demand even more environmental rollbacks in the months
ahead.”
“Finally,
once you normalize extreme hostage taking like this, there’s no
going back. MAGA Republicans succeeded in holding America hostage
under threat of default in order to extract unrelated demands, and
they now have a template. Today’s deal is going to pass, but since
it consists entirely of odious concessions to Republicans, it should
pass with GOP votes. I will not be voting for what I view as a lousy
deal and a terrible precedent.”
Among
other things, the bill limits the types of projects subject to NEPA
review, allows polluters to conduct their own environmental reviews,
and codifies various provisions of the Trump administration’s 2020
NEPA regulations. The bill also approves the disastrous Mountain
Valley Pipeline despite several permitting hurdles it still must go
through.
Click
here
for
a fact sheet on these provisions (Division C, Title III, Sections
321-324).
Earlier
this month, Rep. Huffman joined a letter
signed
by 83 House Democrats to President Biden, Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries
(D-N.Y.) urging them to oppose inclusion of environmental rollbacks
in any must-pass legislation.
In
addition to these dirty energy provisions, this bill would:
take
away Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) away from hundreds of thousands
of older adults and families;
rescind
$20 billion of the $80 billion that the Inflation Reduction Act
allocated to the IRS to pursue rich tax evaders and provide improved
customer service; and
end
the student loan payment pause, requiring borrowers to begin
repayment 60 days after June 30.
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