Republicans to Fight Clean Power Program With ‘Byrd’ Budget Rule
- Democrats’ key plan pays, penalizes utilities into going green
- Opponents say plan violates rule requiring focus on budget
This article is for subscribers only.
Republicans intend to challenge a key climate-change program in the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending package with the same maneuver that helped knock out immigration reform.
They plan to seek a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian that the Clean Electricity Performance Program violates the so-called Byrd Rule prohibition on using budget reconciliation measures to advance policy changes with “merely incidental” budgetary impacts.