President Joe Biden hopes to shield hundreds of billions of dollars in climate spending and other parts of his legacy from a potential Donald Trump return to the White House.
Congress has already approved but Biden has yet to spend hundreds of billions of dollars from legislation that comprises his first-term in office, the American Rescue Plan, his coronavirus stimulus package, the so-called bipartisan infrastructure law, the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill to boost domestic high-tech and semiconductor manufacturing, and the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that largely compromises green energy spending.
The bills contain $1.6 trillion in what Politico calls “loans, grants and tax credits meant to green the economy, revive the country’s manufacturing base, repair its roads and bridges and challenge China for technological supremacy.”
A significant portion of the four bills have yet to be spent, as Politico reported:
- Of the $1.1 trillion those four laws “provided for direct investments on climate, energy and infrastructure,” less than 17% has been spent as of April.
- Of the $884 billion provided by the infrastructure law and the American Rescue Plan, only $125 billion has been spent, and roughly $300 billion won’t be available to spend until the next two fiscal years.
- Of the $54 billion made available via the CHIPS and Science Act, less than $700 million has been awarded — “though the Commerce Department has announced $29 billion in tentative awards to semiconductor manufacturers in recent months.”
White House senior clean energy adviser John Podesta said that the administration is acting with “deliberation, with haste,” to ensure the money is allocated before a potential Trump presidency.
Trump has said he should have the power to refuse to spend congressionally appropriated money that he considerse wasteful. Mandy Gunsekara, a former EPA chief of staff under Trump, predicted that a future Trump presidency could try to halt pending grant approvals and applications until they are further scrutinized.
RELATED — Mike Lee: Biden Spending Plan a ‘Multi-Trillion Dollar Inflation Bomb’
Gunsekara explained, “Anything that has not yet left the door is going to be paused and then reviewed and then acted upon.”
Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said, “President Trump will repeal Joe Biden’s radical EV mandates to save America’s auto industry and cut costs to reduce inflation and get our economy booming again.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.