Environmental groups slam ‘poison pills’ in debt ceiling bill
As President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy try to sell Congress on their proposal to raise the debt ceiling, environmental groups are crying out against provisions that would push forward a controversial pipeline project and weaken a bedrock environmental law.
The deal is a “disaster for people and the planet,” the nonprofit Friends of the Earth said in a statement. The organization’s director of government and political affairs, Ariel Moger, called it a “surrender to Big Oil and Republican hostage-takers.”
The main purpose of the so-called Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 is to raise the debt ceiling, a congressionally mandated limit on the amount of money the Treasury can borrow to fund its operations and pay its creditors. The U.S. government has never before failed to make a debt payment on time, and economists say a …