Earthjustice Statement on House Passage of the Budget Reconciliation Bill

Today the House of Representatives passed the budget reconciliation bill. After the vote, Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen issued the following statement:

“The Republican reconciliation bill is a self-inflicted tragedy for our country. It will do enormous harm to millions of people who will lose access to the most basic necessities, including food and healthcare. It will accelerate climate and environmental crisis in the last years we have left to avoid their worst consequences. In the near term, it will drive up energy costs for working families, kill hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs, and deny the promise of new homegrown industries and global leadership. It mandates the most massive onslaught of drilling, mining, and logging in modern history across our public lands and off our coasts. All for handouts to polluting industries and tax cuts for billionaires.

“Congressional leaders know this bill will have disastrous consequences, and they are abandoning their own best judgment to fall in line with President Trump. This isn’t just a dereliction of duty; it’s an unconscionable betrayal of the American people.

“There is no question that this bill could put climate goals out of reach and threaten enormous damage to essential ecosystems and precious places. As bad as this bill is, we still have legal pathways to fight back. We will redouble our work to protect people’s access to clean air and water, stop short-sighted extraction, and compel clean energy transition in all the forums where we litigate the future of energy.”