While Congress is officially on August recess, there’s work to be done this week. Namely, the House has to pass the reconciliation bill formerly known as the “Inflation Reduction Act. It’s still called that in practice, to be sure. Striking the name out of the language was just a typically petty effort on the part of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) during the vote-a-rama of amendments last week.
The House Rules Committee met Wednesday, preparing for a Friday vote for which an estimated one-third of members will send in a proxy rather than vote in person. Those Republicans who are going to show up for debate are going to be typically obnoxious, as they showed in the Rules Committee.
“If the Green New Deal and corporate welfare had a baby, it would look like this,” House Ways and Means ranking member Kevin Brady (R-TX) said. “America is in a recession,” Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) said, continuing a theme he’s been harping on for weeks.
They’ll also attack the IRS, and the provision in the bill that provides about $80 billion over the next ten years for the chronically underfunded and overworked agency that has been hamstrung with ancient equipment and technology. The attacks will be a long the lines of this, but maybe a little less crotchety:
Republicans have proposed dozens of amendments, many of which will be just as petty as Graham’s. It’s not clear whether they’ll show up to actually offer and debate them, because it is August. Democrats are planning no amendments, intending to pass the bill as is, so it doesn’t have to return to the Senate.
That’s fine by the members, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which had pushed for a much stronger bill. This is a good start, they insist, and truly significant climate change legislation on which to build.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised in a letter to Democratic colleagues and the public that “House Democrats will pass and send to the President the landmark Inflation Reduction Act.” (Take that, Lindz.) “This bill makes a tremendous difference at the kitchen table of America’s families,” Pelosi said. “Those of us who have been fighting from the beginning for more family provisions in Reconciliation know we must never give up that fight—and will continue it in future legislation.
