The House Freedom Caucus has never precisely said what it extracted from the White House in exchange for voting for President Donald Trump’s signature tax and domestic policy law — though its members heavily hinted they secured several concessions.
Part of that deal, NOTUS has learned, was executed just days after the president signed the budget bill into law. The Freedom Caucus was directly involved in Trump’s July 7 executive order, which provided strict guidance on how to implement clean energy tax credit restrictions. The conservative lawmakers’ negotiations with the administration also led to an Interior Department memo significantly increasing the level of review that wind and solar developers are subject to.
“What I was told, it was written almost in real time, like back-of-the-napkin-type stuff,” a source familiar with the origins of the executive order said.