STATEMENT: H.R. 1 Would Boost the Deficit, Harm the Middle Class, and Sabotage Climate Efforts, CAP’s Trevor Higgins Says

Washington, D.C. — After the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass H.R. 1, Trevor Higgins, senior vice president of the Energy and Environment department at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:

This bill puts corporate polluters over the American people, gutting critical investments that will help grow the economy and the middle class. It’s a blatant attempt to undermine the Inflation Reduction Act that sets back the nation’s historic effort to combat climate change. The bill tries in vain to turn back the tide of a clean energy economy that has already led to commitments to create more than 100,000 new, well-paying jobs. It consists almost entirely of handouts and new loopholes for the oil, gas, and mining industries, and ignores climate justice impacts.

The measure would also increase the federal deficit by $2.4 billion over a decade. It’s hard to square this bill with threats from the Republican majority in the House to hold the debt ceiling hostage over a supposed need for spending cuts. This bill shows that their phony concerns over the deficit are just another political stunt.

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