The Senate narrowly defeated a Republican amendment to a bipartisan funding bill that would have rescinded billions of dollars in funding for clean energy loan guarantees.
The 47-47 vote Thursday was enough to kill the proposal from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that would have taken $2.88 billion that Democrats’ 2022 climate law allocated for the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office in order to offset new funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VA funding bill, H.R. 9468, would provide $2.88 billion to help the agency narrow a funding shortfall triggered by higher-than-expected medical compensation claims from the 2022 PACT Act. President Joe Biden is expected to sign it as soon as this week.
The Inflation Reduction Act appropriated about $11.7 billion for new loans under DOE’s Loan Programs Office and increased LPO’s loan authority by about $100 billion, according to DOE.