October 23, 2023
β° It's Monday! Any of you running for speaker?
π« With the House totally stalled, our next newsletter will hit your inbox Wednesday.
- But we'll keep you posted on anything you need to know before then, including if they find a speaker candidate who might actually get elected.
πΆ Today's last song is from Lenwood Long, CEO of the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs: "Total Praise" by Richard Smallwood.
1 big thing: IRA stakes in speaker's race
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The fate of the Inflation Reduction Act is intertwined with the House speaker's race, Jael and Nick write.
Why it matters: House Republicans' funding bills would make large rescissions to IRA money, and many in the GOP want a lead negotiator who will fight for those cuts in talks with the Senate.
Driving the news: GOP lawmakers started to land on a new temporary funding plan as Jim Jordan's speaker candidacy fell apart last week.
- The idea, which Jordan floated during his speaker campaign, is to enact a CR into next year β some say through mid-April.
- It's a gambit for more time to pass individual appropriations bills and apply pressure on the Senate and the White House by using a mandatory 1% budget cut that kicks in at the end of the year.
- "With [this] approach, we can get some policy wins in the appropriations bills," Rep. Thomas Massie told Jael.
Between the lines: A lot of the total cuts Republicans make in their funding bills are from IRA accounts, said Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst David Ditch.
- It's a laundry list of rescissions, including at least $11 billion from the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and $1.4 billion from its IRA climate justice initiatives. (The GOP's HR 1 would repeal the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.)
- At DOE, Republicans would slash $5.7 billion from DOE energy efficiency rebates and support for states and localities upgrading their building codes.
- Ditch said if the IRA rescissions are removed from the House bills, the spending levels would be "roughly on par" with the fiscal 2023 omnibus package β and lawmakers have little appetite to go after much besides the IRA.
- This is part of why Energy-Water Approps Chair Chuck Fleischmann says it's imperative for Republicans to get some IRA rescissions done.
- "Basically we're taking credit for those dollars, which have in some instances provided so much money [that it] dwarfs the annual size of a typical appropriation bill for that year," he told Nick.
Yes, but: Republicans will need Senate Democrats to do any of this, and Democrats aren't going to demolish their signature climate law.
- We don't even know if Democrats will agree to kick the can into next year.
- Still, it's worth noting the anti-IRA push is going to dominate the next month of funding talks β and will be coded as simply a push to reduce spending to fiscal 2022 levels.
- Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman said he sees the long CR approach as a way to create leverage. "I don't think anybody really wants the 1% across-the-board cuts," he said. "It's bad for defense if we do that."
The bottom line: No matter who the speaker is, another short-term spending bill looks inevitable at this point.
- "I think everybody realizes there will be another CR," Rep. Mike Simpson told reporters Friday.
2. Hearings to watch: Offshore leasing spotlight
Illustration: AΓ―da Amer/Axios
1. π₯ Offshore heat: Senate Energy and Natural Resources will hear Thursday from NOAA and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management officials in what's sure to be a testy hearing on the Biden administration's offshore leasing plans.
- Senate Energy's Public Lands Subcommittee will meet Wednesday to get testimony on a huge slate of public lands bills.
- That includes legislation from Sen. John Barrasso to curtail environmental permitting requirements for expanding broadband infrastructure.
2. π Markup watch: House E&C has votes scheduled tomorrow on a laundry list of energy legislation, including Cathy McMorris Rodgers' hydropower permitting package and a suite of nuclear bills.
- Natural Resources, meanwhile, is holding two hearings on Republican priority bills dealing with the pace of permitting, fish species management and offshore leasing.
3. βοΈ Off the chain: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse will lead a hearing in the Budget Committee Wednesday on how climate change affects supply chains.
- It might offer a fresh lens for the industrial policy and China debates currently swirling around the Hill.
4. π§What about WRDA: The House T&I Subcommittee on Water Resources will hear from Army Corps of Engineers chief Scott Spellmon tomorrow on Water Resources Development Act implementation.
5. β· Plastics time: Jeff Merkley's Senate EPW Subcommittee on Chemical Safety will hold a hearing on Thursday on single-use plastics, featuring the World Wildlife Fund.
β Thank you for reading Axios Pro Policy, and thanks to editor David Nather and copy editor Amy Stern.
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