One of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), is joining a bipartisan effort to kill a key funding mechanism for the Biden administration’s electric vehicles plan.
Brown is joining the Congressional Review Act resolution to toss the tax credit rules backed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Reps. Carol Miller (R-WV) and Jared Golden (D-MA) and Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Deb Fischer (R-NE). The rules offered tax credits between $4,000 and $7,500 to purchase new and used EVs.
“We cannot allow American tax dollars to enrich Chinese companies attempting to infiltrate the American auto supply chain,” Brown said. “We created this tax credit for American-made cars and it needs to stay that way.”
Along with Manchin, Brown has argued that the new EV tax credit rules would give too much flexibility to automakers to source materials, the supply chains for which are dominated by China.
The Ohio Democrat has spoken out for months against Chinese EVs, calling on President Joe Biden last month to ban them altogether.
“Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry,” he said in a statement. “Ohio knows all too well how China illegally subsidizes its companies, putting our workers out of jobs and undermining entire industries, from steel to solar manufacturing. We cannot allow China to bring its government-backed cheating to the American auto industry. The U.S. must ban Chinese electric vehicles now, and stop a flood of Chinese government-subsidized cars that threaten Ohio auto jobs, and our national and economic security.”
His alignment with Manchin will also likely give the resolution enough support to make it out of the Senate, assuming all of the Republicans join in supporting it. It is unlikely the resolution will be successful in the long run, as Biden will veto it once it lands on his desk.
But the effort to play hardball with Biden and put up a fight against a sprawling EV push that has questionable popularity could be enough to give Brown an edge as he faces an uphill battle to hold his seat against challenger Bernie Moreno.
Moreno was quick to criticize his move, pointing out that he had voted for the bill that led to the new tax credit rules in the first place.
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“Sherrod Brown voted for the bill that allowed the EPA to issue disastrous rules like this to be put forth, despite warnings from Republicans,” Moreno spokesman Reagan McCarthy said in a statement. “Now, in the toughest election he has ever faced, Sherrod is pretending to oppose the rule he allowed to be put in place knowing that Biden will veto the CRA. He votes with Biden nearly 100% of the time — including for EV mandates and Green New Deal schemes — and we look forward to exposing his liberal record of selling out Ohio workers and families by acting as Biden’s rubber-stamp in the Senate.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Brown for comment.
