Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) marked the one-year anniversary of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act with a promise to “push back” against the Biden administration’s efforts to “implement ... a radical climate change agenda” through the legislation, which Mr. Manchin helped author.
The Inflation Reduction Act was a $744 billion budget reconciliation bill passed along party lines during the previous Congress when Democrats held the upper chamber by a single vote. Every single Republican opposed the bill, which was hammered out between Mr. Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) after Mr. Manchin had earlier blocked larger spending bills from advancing through the Democrat-controlled Congress.
Over half of the bill, roughly $450 billion, was devoted to climate legislation, making it the largest climate bill ever passed by Congress.
“The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is one of the most historic pieces of legislation passed in decades for working and middle-class families,” Mr. Manchin said, citing the bill’s inclusion of several provisions like a $238 billion in debt reduction, lower drug costs for seniors on Medicare, a $35 cap on the price of insulin, and other measures.
But he said, “Some across both parties and the Administration have chosen to play political games with this important legislation.”
Specifically, Mr. Manchin cited the legislation’s “all-of-the-above energy policy,” which he said was intended to promote growth both in clean and renewable energy sources as well as fossil fuels.
“If implemented as designed, the IRA will ensure that all Americans have more reliable and more affordable power for years to come,” Mr. Manchin said.
“Make no mistake, the IRA is exactly the kind of legislation that in normal political times both political parties would proudly embrace because it is about putting the interests of Americans and West Virginians first,” he said.
But he said that actors within the administration had sought to warp the language and intent of the bill to carry out broader political motives and vowed to push back against these efforts.
“Going forward, I will push back on those who seek to undermine this significant legislation for their respective political agenda, and that begins with my unrelenting fight against the Biden Administration’s efforts to implement the IRA as a radical climate agenda instead of implementing the IRA that was passed into law,” Mr. Manchin wrote.
“This country needs leadership, and my hope is that elected leaders in both parties and in the White House put down their political swords, stop playing to the ideological extremes and focus on the very goal of this legislation—to help our hard-working families and build a better, stronger and more secure nation for this generation and the next.”
Specifically, the Inflation Reduction Act offered a tax credit of up to $7,500 for electric vehicles that met certain conditions related to the sourcing of the materials used to manufacture the vehicles. To qualify for the tax credit, vehicles were required to have been manufactured in North America.
However, Ms. Yellen allowed for a more expansive interpretation of the provision under which more vehicles would be eligible for the full credit than originally intended by Mr. Manchin, including leased and rideshare vehicles produced outside of North America.
This expansive implementation, meanwhile, has raised the projected cost of the bill by at least $180 billion more than the Congressional Budget Office originally predicted, according to revised estimates from the body.
Since then, Mr. Manchin has crusaded against the bill that he brought into being, threatening during one TV appearance to “vote to repeal my own bill.”
Mr. Manchin’s term in the Senate is set to expire this year, and he has yet to indicate if he will pursue a reelection bid in 2024 as he faces a challenge in his home state from Gov. Jim Justice and Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.).
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) offered a different appraisal of the Inflation Reduction Act on its one-year anniversary.
“As Democrats celebrate the one-year anniversary of their partisan climate and regulatory spending spree, the reality is the results have been devastating for the American people,” Ms. Capito said in a statement.
“The Inflation Reduction Act poured trillions of taxpayer dollars into unaccountable programs that have done little to actually reduce emissions,“ she wrote. ”Americans should know that through this legislation they’ve subsidized the Democrats’ first iteration of the Green New Deal, all while they continue to pay sky-high prices to fill up their tanks and power their homes.
“It’s no surprise the Inflation Reduction Act, which was written in secret and rushed through Congress on a party-line vote, is extremely unpopular in energy-producing states like West Virginia,” Ms. Capito added.
