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Former US military leaders are lobbying the Congress to refuse Republican push to abolish billions of dollars into tax loans for critical minerals, warning that it would leave the country vulnerable to China.
A group of 23 retired four -star generals and admirals have asked Jason Smith, chairman of the Home Committee Ways and vehicles, protect five tax discounts covering advanced production, clean vehicles and electricity generation. The committee is expected to vote for the fate of some of the loans next week.
Former military leaders are members of Safe, a group focused on critical minerals and energy security that is funded through donors ranging from charity to the US industry and government. They include Admiral Dennis Bler, a former director of national intelligence and General Joseph Dunford, the 19th Chairman of the Common Chiefs of Staff.
The meeting struggle is highlighting unusual political alliances on the act of reducing Era Biden’s inflation, which provided lucrative incentives for green energy and critical mineral projects.
The law is attracting support from the industry and even some Republicans whose districts benefit from the resulting projects. Meanwhile, environmental groups have protested from the extraction of minerals, citing wildlife, waters and ecological concerns.
Businesses have issued a multimillion dollar lobby campaign that aims to save the IRA since Donald Trump won the November presidential election. He has labeled the legislation a “new green fraud” and pledged to abolish it with the help of Republicans in Congress. The president wants to use the savings created by removing the legislation to finance the planned tax cut of his administration.
The abolition of tax deductions in IRA can affect some of the 20 critical mineral projects recently followed by the Trump administration. These include Lithium -backed Lithium and Equinitor projects in Arkansas and Albmarle in Nevada. Critical minerals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium are essential to electronic devices such as wind turbines, electric motors, rechargeable batteries and military equipment.
Some Republican Congress members have called on party colleagues to “completely” repeal the act, saying it can cost taxpayers 1TN for a decade and propose renewable energy sources while moving fossil fuels.
The lobbying continues the concerns raised by the Defense Department this year over “China’s Interruption in Critical American Supply Chains” by limiting exports of rare land and equipment used to process them.
In a letter to Smith and room and senate leaders, generals said the reduction of loans would threaten $ 125 billion in investment in critical mineral projects for the defense industries. This would have 100,000 direct risk jobs in 15 countries and would create opportunities for companies related to the Communist Party of China to increase their share of the global market of major industries, they maintain.
“The abolition or weakening of these provisions would not only stall the growth of critical industries – would leave the United States tangible from manipulating the chain of hostile regime supply and further delay efforts to rebuild the industrial protection basis,” the letter said.
Trump has already aimed at expenses by law by ordering all federal agencies “to immediately stop disbursement of funds under the IRA”. But the future of the IRA after all depends on a vote in Congress, which adopted legislation in 2022 under a budget resolution. This means only a simple majority in the room and the Senate is required to abolish it, without the opportunity for a Philibrant.
Republicans have a majority in both congress houses, but supporters of the IRA hope that some party members will oppose the abolition of tax deductions that support work in their constituencies.
On Thursday, a dozen the Republican lawmaker wrote a letter to Smith, arguing that IRA tax loans were important to Republican states with large clean electricity projects, nuclear energy and battery conservation, according to Reuters. However, lawmakers said it was not “unreasonable” to include a stage of loans.
“IRA will almost certainly survive, but not in its current form,” said Frank Maisano, a partner in the Bracewell policy and resolution group, a law and lobbying firm. “There are likely some articles, such as the provisions of sunset added to end certain tax loans faster than originally provided, among other changes.”
