Sanders Announces Amendment to Strip All Fossil Fuel Handouts From Manchin Deal

Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Wednesday that he will be filing amendments to remove fossil fuel industry giveaways from Democrats’ new reconciliation bill and strengthen the legislation’s drug price provisions, which the Vermont senator has characterized as unacceptably weak.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sanders reiterated the message he delivered in Tuesday remarks outlining what he sees as the deep flaws of the reconciliation package, the product of months of negotiations primarily between fossil fuel industry ally Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“We have got to do everything possible to take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry, not give billions of dollars in corporate welfare to an industry that has been actively destroying our planet,” Sanders said in his Wednesday speech. “I will be introducing an amendment to do just that.”

According to Warren Gunnels, Sanders’ staff director, the amendment would “eliminate all of the fossil fuel giveaways in the so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act,'” a proposed change that’s sure to draw opposition from Manchin.

One section Sanders is targeting is the requirement that millions of acres of public lands be offered for oil drilling as a condition for new solar and wind development. He also warned that the measure in its current form would give the oil and gas industry “billions of dollars in new tax breaks and subsidies over the next 10 years.”

“It might seem a bit incongruous to people why we are rewarding the people whose emissions are driving the temperature of the Earth up and causing massive destruction,” the senator said, “but that is in fact what this bill does.”

Sanders also said he intends to introduce an amendment that would ensure Medicare “pays no more for prescription drugs” than the Department of Veterans Affairs. At present, the reconciliation bill includes limited provisions that would require Medicare to negotiate the prices of a small number of drugs directly with pharmaceutical companies, which are lobbying aggressively against the proposal.

The Vermont senator’s criticism of the reconciliation bill and his proposed fixes come as Democrats are racing to complete work on the package by the end of this week and pass it before recess that starts on August 8.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.