Negotiations on a final reconciliation spending bill continue. Unsurprisingly, this enormous package has both good and bad fiscal policies. For us, crafting a bill that would match new spending with new revenue has been a bedrock principle – not just because it represents sound budgeting, but because there are plenty of opportunities to raise much needed revenue and cut wasteful spending.

From the outset, we have encouraged lawmakers to adhere to these basic principles as they assemble the different pieces of this bill:

• Pass a fiscally responsible response in pursuit of legitimate public needs: Ex. there is no need for additional spending on the Pentagon or income subsidies for agricultural operations.
• Do not create future liabilities: Ex. avoid gimmicks such as “temporary” tax and spending policies that will be extended.
• Promote resilience instead of dependence on federal spending: Ex. focus on policies that foster innovation, increase investment from non-federal sources, and are responsive to markets.
• Invest in real, lasting, climate solutions: Ex. Tie spending to reforms to legacy programs such as the federal oil and gas leasing system or federal crop insurance.

Here are some of the things we like and don’t like about the bill:

THE GOOD

• Creation of a 15 percent minimum tax on the reported profits of large corporations.
• Efforts to reduce profit-shifting by multinational companies and creation of tax penalties for companies headquartered in global tax havens.
• Increased enforcement at the Internal Revenue Service to reduce the tax gap between what is owed and what is actually paid by large corporations and the wealthy.
• Hazardous fuels reduction projects in national forests within the wildland-urban interface and post-fire recovery plans.
• Revise rules and regulations prevent undue degradation of public lands due to hardrock mining activities.
• Repeal of section 20001 of the 2017 Tax Act (P.L. 115-97), which established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas leasing program, which keeps taxpayers off the hook for the existing and any new lease giveaways.
• Reforms outdated oil and gas leasing policies on federal lands, bringing rental and royalty rates in line with current markets.
• Approximately $22 billion investment in Farm Bill conservation programs with the potential to improve the performance of farming and ranching businesses while reducing demand on post disaster bailouts.
• Tighter rules will clamp down on companies inflating their foreign taxes to claim more Foreign Tax Credits to raise $12 billion. While rules for ‘Dual Capacity’ taxpayers like oil and gas companies will raise $6.7 billion in revenue.

THE BAD

• Refundable blenders tax credit for each gallon of sustainable aviation fuel sold as part of a qualified fuel mixture.
• Extends the biomass, biodiesel, second-generation (cellulosic) biofuel, and Alternative Fuel Refueling Property tax credits through 2026
• New credit for the production of electricity from current nuclear power plants will cost $23 billion
• Grants for Rural Energy Savings Program loans
• $2 billion for the Rural Energy for America Program which has subsidized the mature biofuels and biomass industries even though it was originally meant to promote rural wind and solar projects
• $960 million for grants to install, retrofit, or otherwise upgrade fuel dispensers or pumps and related equipment for ethanol blends and biodiesel blends
• Creation of a new $300 million Alternative Fuel and Low-Emission Aviation Technology Program for so-called sustainable aviation fuel that could subsidize mature food-based feedstocks such as corn and soy, in addition to $10 million for advanced biofuels grants to industry, distributed through the Environmental Protection Agency
• Creation of an untested and potentially unwieldy program to pay producers (and landowners) to plant cover crops in their fields
• Increasing the limitation on the deduction for state and local taxes from $10,000 to $72,500
• Tax code provisions providing billions of dollars in subsidies to the oil and gas industry are untouched