TPA Slams the PROVE IT Act of 2023

For Immediate Release                                            Contact: Abigail Graham: (202) 417-7235

June 8, 2023                                                        

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) introduced legislation titled the Prove It Act of 2023. This legislation stems from a marriage of protectionism and the Left’s environmentalism, both of which will hurt the economy and Americans’ pocketbooks. While the bill would not outright implement a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Sen. Coons shared with Politico that he hopes the legislation will “lay[] the scientific foundation for moving forward with a carbon border adjustment.”

TPA Executive Director Patrick Hedger provided the following comments:

“The PROVE IT Act ‘proves’ that both parties have bad ideas that need to be stopped before implemented.  The legislation would inch Congress closer to the institution of a CBAM, or carbon tariff, which will increase the costs of goods for the American consumer. As history has shown, tariffs – like any other taxes – increase the seller’s costs, and these increases are inevitably passed onto the customer. Moreover, the CBAM is predicated on an environmentalist desire to minimize the use of fossil fuels using state power.

“In the short term, the PROVE IT Act would siphon money from taxpayers or other federal spending priorities to fund a review of manufacturing emissions in the U.S. and abroad. Particularly given the federal government’s unsustainable debt burden, brought painfully to light by the recent debt-ceiling crisis, it is irresponsible to spend public funds on initiatives that would advance environmentalism and protectionism.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.