West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who has repeatedly flaunted his opposition to United States President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act, has received scrutiny from coal miners who argue that there are provisions in the bill that could benefit them.
The situation comes a day after the Democratic senator appeared to have killed Biden's legislation with his announcement of a "no" vote. The largest coal mining union in the United States then put out a statement that praised the act's provisions and urged the West Virginia official to reverse his course.
Joe Manchin's Opposition
The president of the United Mine Workers of America, Cecil Roberts, said in a released statement on Monday that they were disappointed in Manchin's opposition to the bill. They urged the senator to revisit Biden's bill and work together with his colleagues to pass what they said would help coal miners keep working and have a crucial impact on the union's members, their families, and their communities, CNN reported.
Now, Manchin is also receiving criticisms from other officials, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who, in personal terms on Monday, accused the West Virginia senator of not caring about African Americans and other minority groups. He said he was extremely disappointed and frustrated after Manchin announced his stance with the Build Back Better Act.
Bowman said that Democrats made a compromise with Manchin and brought down the bill's price tag from $3.5 trillion down to $1.75 trillion. He argued that the West Virginia senator's special interests, donors, and lobbyists were cutting the bill for many months to keep it from getting passed.
"Why? Because this bill disproportionately supports people of color. It supports women. It supports children. It supports those who are poor and lifts them out of poverty. Why wouldn't Manchin want to support that when this would benefit West Virginia tremendously?" said Bowman, Fox News reported.
Benefits of Build Back Better
Lawmakers have been negotiating for months to get the Build Back Better pushed through before Manchin's open announcement of a "no" vote. If it passes in its current form, the bill would have given out hundreds of billions of dollars dedicated to clean energy.
The amount of money it would distribute would get the United States within striking distance of Biden's goal to cut the nation's planet-warming emissions in half by 2030. The situation could also boost global efforts to mitigate the rapid increase in temperatures.
With Manchin's opposition, the bill could die before being allowed to share its benefits, meaning it could be next to impossible for the country to meet the aggressive climate targets. An energy systems engineer at Princeton University, Jesse Jenkins, said there was still a large gap between where the United States was and its goals to reduce climate change.
Jenkins, who has led an effort to model the effects of Biden's Build Back Better on U.S. emissions, said that without the bill or a climate bill with similar scope, it would be challenging to meet the United States' goals, the New York Times reported.
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