Colorado Politics

100+ local officials ask congressional delegation to back ‘strongest possible climate measures’ in budget bill

More than 100 locally elected officials in Colorado are calling on the state’s congressional delegation to include “the strongest possible climate measures” in a legislative package Congress appears set to vote on this week.

The package contains much of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, including measures from the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan proposal released in April, expanded Medicare benefits as well as a provision allowing the federal health care program to negotiate prices on prescription drugs, as well as investments in infrastructure, jobs and efforts to combat climate change. It comes in the form of a budget reconciliation bill, a budgetary process that among other things lowers the threshold to pass in the U.S. Senate from 60 votes to 50.

But while Democrats control both legislative chambers at the federal level, the sprawling $3.5 trillion bill faces a rocky road to reach Biden’s desk.

In the Senate, where Democrats rely on Vice President Kamala Harris’ vote to overcome the chamber’s 50-50 partisan divide, U.S. Sens. Joe Machin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have expressed skepticism over the bill’s price tag.

In the House, CQ-Roll Call on Wednesday reported a trio of Texas Democrats penned a letter to party leaders asking to strip out new taxes and fees from the bill they say would harm U.S. oil and gas producers. According to that report, the missive from U.S. Reps. Vicente Gonzalez, Henry Cuellar and Filemon Vela “also targets a linchpin of Democrats’ climate policies: a ‘clean electricity performance’ program to reward utilities that increase their output from renewable resources each year, and penalize those that don’t.”

That letter follows another from the same trio as well as four of their House Democratic colleagues from the state expressing similar concerns. House Democrats can only afford to lose three votes.

But while some federally elected Democrats look at ways to scale back the package’s climate measures, locally elected officials across Colorado are urging to state’s congressional delegation to “fight to secure the most expansive investments possible.”

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“We are working hard – and making progress – to reduce our own contributions to climate pollution and to improve the resilience of our communities to these changes. But there is only so much we can do at the local level and with local and state resources,” said the letter sent Tuesday. “Congress has an opportunity to make sure the reconciliation package makes a real difference for our economic vitality, community health, quality of life, and environmental conditions.”

Colorado’s congressional Democrats have been largely supportive of the climate elements in the reconciliation bill, with U.S. Reps. Joe Neguse of Lafayette and Jason Crow of Centennial serving as leaders on climate legislation during their time in Congress. The GOP members of the delegation stand opposed to the Biden-backed package.

COVER STORY | By and for Colorado, Civilian Climate Corps enjoys federal support

Among the 118 signatories were elected officials from Adams County, Aspen, Aurora, Avon, Basalt, Boulder, Boulder County, Breckenridge, Broomfield, Carbondale, Chaffee County, Clear Creek County, Colorado Springs, Commerce City, Crested Butte, Denver, Durango, Eagle, Eagle County, Erie, Federal Heights, Fort Collins, Frisco, Gilpin County, Glenwood Springs, Golden, Grand County, Grand Junction, Gunnison County, Jefferson County, La Plata County, Lafayette, Lake County, Lakewood, Larimer County, Longmont, Louisville, Lyons, Minturn, Mountain Village, Nederland, Northglenn, Ouray County, Paonia, Pitkin County, Ridgway, Routt County, Salida, San Miguel County, Steamboat Springs, Summit County, Superior, Telluride, Thornton, Vail, Westminster and Wheat Ridge.

Colorado Politics’ Ernest Luning contributed to this report.

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