New details have been revealed about a deal President Donald Trump cut with hardcore Republicans to get their votes for his "big beautiful bill" — and that agreement has left other GOP lawmakers feeling double-crossed.
The House Freedom Caucus has not specified what exactly it got from the White House in exchange for members' votes, although some members hinted they'd gotten some concessions. But NOTUS has learned the Republican faction was directly involved in Trump's executive order that increased scrutiny on wind and solar developers.
“What I was told, it was written almost in real time, like back-of-the-napkin-type stuff,” said a source familiar with the origins of the executive order.
The July 7 order, signed three days after the budget bill, provides strict guidance on implementing clean energy tax credit restrictions. Sources revealed the Freedom Caucus directly negotiated the details of the executive order and communicated with the administration before the budget bill came up for a final vote.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) had previously said he met with administration lawyers to discuss reversing language inserted by moderate Republican senators that would undo harsh cuts by the House to tax credits for clean energy developers, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) later said she felt “cheated” by Trump’s executive order.
“We made a deal and then hours later, a deal was made with someone else," Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News.
Multiple senators who pushed against restrictions on renewable energy in earlier versions of the bill told NOTUS they're concerned about Trump's order and how quickly the administration issued interpretations of legislation they passed just days earlier.
“They better go back and look at congressional intent,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). “It feels like they are okay with stranding capital and moving a little bit too soon.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who advocated for expanding tax credit eligibility for developers, said he placed a hold on three Trump nominees for the Treasury Department due to his concerns about the tax restrictions that he believes stray too far from congressional intent, and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) also expressed dissatisfaction with the executive order.
The budget law requires wind and solar developers to start projects by a certain date to qualify for tax credits and places some restrictions on developers who source materials from overseas, but wind and solar developers worry that Trump's executive order could place them at even more of a disadvantage.
“This isn’t oversight,” said Jason Grumet, the CEO of the American Clean Power Association. “It’s obstruction that will needlessly harm the fastest growing sources of electric power.”
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields did not address the apparent deal cut with Freedom Caucus members, but he defended the new restrictions placed on wind and solar developers.
“President Trump and the nearly 80 million Americans who supported his America First energy agenda are not interested in advancing scam energy industries that embolden our adversaries, stifle domestic energy production, and raise prices for countless Americans," Fields said.
“The President’s OBBB is a complete overhaul of the Biden Administration’s slush fund for the Green New Deal lobby and will further unleash the might of America’s energy dominance while continuing to lower costs for millions of families."