WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today released the following statement on H.R.5376, the Democrats’ reconciliation bill, following its passage on the Senate floor. Senate:
“The so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will result in increased costs for American workers, further crushing household budgets and savings. Democrats are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to raise taxes and raise the cost of living as the American people face record inflation and a declining economy. It makes no sense. Right now, Congress should focus on reducing costs and increasing economic investment, not spending $80 billion to double the size and scope of the IRS and hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change. The policies created in this legislation are not what Americans want, nor are they what Americans need. I am disappointed that my fellow Senate Democrats supported this legislation knowing that it fails the American people.”
Senator Shelby did not support the legislation, which passed the Senate by 51 votes to 50. He offered an amendment to the bill that would require the Secretary of the Interior to complete pending Application Lease processes for metallurgical and thermal coal through of the Bureau of Land Management’s Application Lease program. Currently, the Bureau of Land Management’s Application Leasing Program for all federal coal leases is frozen due to action by the Biden Administration. Metallurgical and thermal coal mining is essential to the success of the US economy and provides thousands of jobs across the country.
