Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, took to the Senate floor to criticize the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s proposed rules that would make it easier for Foreign Entities of Concern (FEOC) to take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) 30D Clean Vehicle Tax Credit while hurting American taxpayers and increasing our reliance on foreign adversaries, like China.

Chairman Manchin said in part: “The Administration knows that the deal they made and the intent of the IRA was to secure our energy, reduce our debt and rebuild our critical supply chains. They are attacking all three of those principles, and you have never heard about the good that the bill did and the reason, the purpose of the bill: reduce our debt, secure energy, and rebuild our critical supply chains that are reliable and not dependent on foreign supply chains that are unreliable. I am going to do everything in my power to hold them accountable, protect American taxpayers and secure our energy supply chain.

“Mr. President this is something we should all be concerned about. If we work hard and we pass a piece of legislation and we have an understanding that we all have agreed to what a bill does, then every agency should adhere to the intent of the legislation. They should not be able to look for loopholes and find loopholes and even write them in if there are no loopholes. But they’re doing that. Not just a Democrat administration or Republican, they’ve all done this. You can’t accumulate $33 trillion in debt, or an additional $20 trillion of debt in 12 years, 13 years, you can’t do that unless something is critically wrong. And it has to stop.

“So, I’m asking the President, please get involved Mr. President. Hold your agencies to the letter of the law the way you would if you were still a Senator.”

To watch Chairman Manchin’s speech on the Senate floor, please click here.