There is not much news these days on the budget reconciliation process, and what news there is mostly points to a slow process.
Right now the Senate has a lot on their plate with a February 18th government funding deadline approaching and a supreme court justice confirmation process. On top of that Senator Ben Ray Luján had a stroke and will likely be 4-6 weeks in recovery before he can be back to DC. In his absence only legislation with bipartisan support will be brought to the floor; anything that would advance on a party line vote like reconciliation will have to wait until he recovers. Work can still continue in committee and on any behind the scenes negotiations.
There has been much talk of Senator Joe Manchin declaring Build Back Better dead but we should be clear that work continues to proceed on putting together a smaller package for budget reconciliation that has climate provisions at the center. So while the package will shrink and the name is likely to shift, the work continues. Now is a good time to update our messaging away from the BBB name to “budget reconciliation” (we will be updating our action pages soon).
Carbon pricing champions in the Senate continue to push that agenda as part of the budget process. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse recently said, “Conversations about carbon pricing have taken place and will continue to take place. We need to design a bill that will get 50 votes in the Senate and that meet our goals in terms of carbon and methane emissions.”
CCL volunteers did a tremendous amount of work over the last 10 months to bring the message to Congress on the need to act on climate and a carbon price. This work has not been in vain and even though, right now, members of Congress are publicly focused on other matters and not on reconciliation, that work will pay off.
We do expect Congress to return to it in March or April, but expect that the process will stretch out into the spring. It is still good to write to President Biden and Congress using our action pages. A steady drumbeat of support for climate action is always good.
And, right now we should be gathering our strength for another big push in a month or two so we can help get climate legislation over the finish line. We will need to make it very clear to President Biden and members of Congress that voters are hungry for climate action and failure to act is not an option. This is a great time to start planning local climate events for the spring that will catch the attention of the media and MOC offices (more on that soon).
Tony
Thanks Tony!
I’ve been posting all your updates to our GA State Facebook page. I think the give members good insight to help sustain commitment, provide hope and show that we’re still maintaining our strategy to pass a carbon pricing bill in the coming months.
It might be wise for staff to make these sharable on social media so others can post them more easily.
Here’s our page if anyone wants to share it:
Tony I pass your updates on to my chapter too. Very helpful. While we're waiting, are we taking any position (and maybe this is being discussed in another forum that I haven't located) on other climate bills like The Future Generations Protection Act that Congresswomen Jan Schakowsky and Nanette Barragan just reintroduced?
Hi @Lynda Marin
I am not aware of any position CCL has taken on that bill, but right now I can say we mostly make public position statements on carbon pricing bills and bills that have bipartisan sponsors.
Tony
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