House Republican Introduces Bill to Dismantle Biden’s American Climate Corps Initiative

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) speaks during a press conference with the House Freedom Caucus on the debt limit negotiations at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on March 10, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A House Republican has proposed a bill that would disassemble President Joe Biden’s Climate Corps initiative.

The No American Climate Corps Act, introduced by Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), would “simply prohibit any federal funds from being used for the purposes of creating an American Climate Corps or a similar program,” according to the bill’s official summary.

The Biden administration issued a statement in September to introduce its American Climate Corps, a workforce training and service initiative designed to prepare young people for careers in green energy and conservation.

The initiative, announced as part of the Investing in America agenda, aims to train more than 20,000 young Americans in climate-related skills, creating pathways to jobs in the clean energy and climate change sectors.

Mr. Good said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times that his bill would fight back against the “radical environmental agenda” by defunding the corps.

“Americans are struggling to make ends meet because of Bidenomics. Instead of recognizing that family budgets are already stretched thin by sky-high energy prices, President Biden is focused on deploying a climate army that will increase regulatory burdens on business owners and drive inflation across the economy even higher,” he said in the statement.

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“My bill will fight Biden’s climate extremism and continue our work towards the goal of American energy independence.”

According to the congressman’s office, the initiative draws inspiration from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and would require that the president “borrow and spend $30 billion for his climate change army.“ This effort, according to Mr. Good, is part of the Biden administration’s ”radical“ environmental ”justice” green energy program.

“President Biden and Democrats’ continued climate change-fueled war on American energy independence will cost over $500 billion in climate spending with the passage of bills like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Acceleration Act,” the statement reads.

President Biden addressed the initiative in a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sept. 20: “I’m taking executive action to launch the American Climate Corps—a workforce initiative that will train over 20,000 young people for good-paying jobs in the clean energy and climate resilience economy.”

On Sept. 18, a coalition of left-leaning lawmakers, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y), and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), sent a letter to the White House urging President Biden to establish the climate program through executive action.

“Through interagency collaboration, as well as coordination with state climate corps, other state entities, and local non-profit organizations, your Administration can realize the vision of a Civilian Climate Corps that establishes a unified front in the face of climate change—one that looks like America, serves America, and puts good-paying union jobs within reach for more young adults,” the letter reads.

A number of leading Republicans formally responded to the executive action on Oct. 13 by beginning an inquiry into the American Climate Corps.

Lawmakers from the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the CEO of AmeriCorps raising questions about the cost of the program, “including the extent to which the [American Climate Corps] will redirect funds from other AmeriCorps programs or any other existing federal agencies and programs.”

“Unlike the Civilian Conservation Corps, which was implemented by President Roosevelt in response to an authorization in a law passed by Congress, the announcement of the program does not reference any legal authority giving rise to the program,” the letter reads.

“According to the announcement, as the nexus of the ACC for federal agencies, AmeriCorps seems poised to facilitate the flow of an unspecified sum of federal taxpayer dollars to unknown individuals and entities. It is unclear where these funds are coming from and for what purposes they will be used.”

The committee cited their efforts to “combat waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government and to safeguard taxpayer dollars” as the motivation for the inquiry.

White House officials didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.