Environmental groups are launching a $10 million push for Congress to make climate change central to infrastructure legislation.
“The Great American Build” campaign, a joint effort of Climate Power, the League of Conservation Voters and Potential Energy Coalition, will pressure lawmakers to include funding for climate action as part of the emerging infrastructure package.
“Americans elected pro-climate majorities in Congress, and they expect big things on the issues that drove them to the polls — including clean energy and climate change,” Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power, told NBC.
As reported by The Hill:
Democrats in Congress began openly discussing an infrastructure package last week, just days after the president’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package became his first legislative victory in Congress and he signed the bill into law.
Some lawmakers have hinted that any successful infrastructure push would likely require Democrats to use the budget reconciliation process, as they did with the stimulus package, to avoid defeat at the hands of Republicans. Under the parliamentary process, bills can pass with a simple majority in the evenly split Senate, where Vice President Harris serves as a tie-breaker.
“Ultimately, it’s going to be put together similar to how the American Rescue Plan was put together,” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) was heard telling Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Most likely, we’re going to have to use reconciliation.”
This article was reposted from EcoWatch.
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