A massive federal spending effort to combat climate change passed in 2022 without a single Republican vote in the U.S. House or the Senate. But the billions of dollars it authorized benefited Republican and Democratic politicians alike – so long as they were already in the House of Representatives – according to an analysis I conducted with several fellow researchers. The results suggest that incumbents can still reap electoral rewards when federal money reaches their districts, even if they opposed the bill that provided it.
Enacted in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act squeaked through the Senate only through a tiebreaking vote cast by Vice President Kamala Harris. It authorized spending US$370 billion to combat climate change and lower greenhouse gas emissions, primarily through subsidies such as a tax credit of up to $7,500 for buying an electric vehicle and incentives for making commercial buildings more energy efficient, rather than by imposing new fees or taxes.
