Federal Legislative Advocacy

As the advocacy partner of the Environmental Defense Fund, EDF Action works to pass transformative legislation that will help bring about real and lasting solutions to the climate crisis, address environmental injustice, improve public health and speed our transition to an economy powered by clean energy. Lately, we’ve had a lot of success!

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was signed into law in November of 2021. This bill included historic investments in modernizing our energy grid, eliminating lead pipes and service lines from our drinking water, cleaning up brownfields and superfund sites and strengthening our defense against extreme weather events, which are made worse and more frequent by the climate crisis, by investing in resilience.

But we didn’t stop there. In August of 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law. IRA is, simply put, the biggest investment that our nation has ever made to transform our energy economy and address the climate crisis. The tax credits within the bill will catalyze change for the two largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions – transportation and our power sector – speeding our transition to clean energy while creating good-paying jobs and saving Americans money. EDF Action was also thrilled that the IRA works to cut methane pollution with the Methane Emissions Reduction Program, since highlighting the climate progress that can be made by reducing the emissions of this dangerous greenhouse gas has long been an area of focus and leadership for us and the Environmental Defense Fund.

EDF Action played a leading role in helping to secure the passage of both the BIL and IRA, helping to unlock their cumulative $500 billion investment in climate priorities. We put the full weight of our advocacy and lobbying power behind getting these bills across the finish line by spending more than $10 million in targeted paid media urging Congress to pass these crucial investments. We are particularly pleased that at key moments when the passage of these bills – IRA especially – seemed remote, EDF Action called on Congress to go back to the negotiating table to hammer out a deal.

EDF Action seeks to work across the aisle to build bipartisan consensus whenever possible. That was true not only of the BIL, which earned 17 Republican votes in the U.S. Senate but of the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which will help farmers, ranchers and forest owners access voluntary carbon markets. EDF Action worked to ensure this bill earned broad bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate, where it garnered 93 votes on the floor. When the bill stalled out in the House, EDF Action worked to ensure it was included within a broader legislative package that was passed at the end of 2022.

EDF Action will apply that same approach to all our legislative priorities in 2023 and beyond, which includes working to ensure that the next farm bill prioritizes climate-smart agriculture solutions while preserving the investments already made, working in a bipartisan manner to address the western water crisis and making sure that climate innovation remains an area that attracts broad bipartisan support.