Legislative and Policy Analysis
Section 60015: Rescission of funding for low-embodied carbon labeling for construction materials
Executive Summary
Section 60015 rescinds the unobligated balances of Inflation Reduction Act funding for EPA’s low-embodied carbon labeling program for construction materials.[1] The original Inflation Reduction Act provision, section 60116 of Public Law 117-169, appropriated $100 million to EPA, available through September 30, 2026, to develop and carry out a program identifying and labeling construction materials and products with substantially lower embodied greenhouse gas emissions.[2]
The practical effect is to cancel remaining EPA budget authority for a federal labeling system intended to help federal purchasers, transportation agencies, building agencies, manufacturers, contractors, designers, and other buyers identify lower-carbon construction materials. EPA had described the program as part of the federal “Buy Clean” framework and as a way to create an accessible registry of cleaner construction materials for buyers.[3]
The environmental and climate impact is negative. The section does not itself increase emissions from a particular project, but it removes federal funding for the data, labeling, verification, and market-recognition infrastructure that would have made lower-carbon materials easier to identify and purchase. The likely harm is indirect and market-mediated: weaker information tools, less consistent product labeling, slower procurement alignment, and reduced demand signals for lower-emission steel, glass, asphalt, concrete, and other construction materials.
What Section 60015 Actually Does
Section 60015 is a rescission provision. It does not create a new regulatory program, repeal the underlying concept of low-embodied carbon labeling, or amend a procurement standard directly. Instead, it cancels unobligated balances that Congress had previously made available to EPA under Inflation Reduction Act section 60116.[1]
The rescinded funding traces to a $100 million appropriation to EPA for fiscal year 2022, available through September 30, 2026. That money was for EPA administrative costs and for developing and carrying out a program, in consultation with the Federal Highway Administration and the General Services Administration, to identify and label construction materials and products with substantially lower embodied greenhouse gas emissions compared with industry averages.[2]
| Program or activity | Amount | What the money supports |
|---|---|---|
| EPA low-embodied carbon labeling for construction materials | $100 million | EPA development and implementation of a program to identify and label construction materials and products with substantially lower embodied greenhouse gas emissions, in consultation with FHWA for transportation materials and GSA for federal building materials.[2] |
| Section 60015 rescission | Up to the unobligated balance of the $100 million appropriation | Cancellation of remaining budget authority that had not been legally obligated before the rescission took effect.[1] |
The exact amount rescinded depends on the unobligated balance at the time of rescission. Public tracking sources indicate the program had not awarded funding as of January 2025 and that the remaining amount at stake was $100 million, but final budget execution records would control the precise account-level amount.[4]
Legislative Mechanism
The mechanism is a direct rescission of unobligated balances. In federal budget terms, a rescission cancels budget authority that had previously been enacted but had not yet been obligated. Section 60015 targets amounts made available to carry out section 60116 of Public Law 117-169, which was codified as a note to 42 U.S.C. 4321.[1]
The original program was not simply a public education campaign. Section 60116 directed EPA to develop a program that could identify and label materials based on environmental product declarations or state-agency determinations verified by EPA.[2] EPA’s Federal Register notice described the label program as a way to create an easier and more reliable mechanism for purchasers to identify lower embodied carbon construction materials and products.[5]
The section therefore changes the legal baseline by removing dedicated funding for federal development of the labeling infrastructure. EPA may retain general expertise or other authorities related to pollution reduction, procurement support, or data systems, but the specific Inflation Reduction Act funding stream for this label program is withdrawn to the extent unobligated.
Expenditure Tracking and Reporting Protocol
The rescission is likely tracked through federal budget execution systems rather than through a single public grant or contract award. The key sources are the statutory rescission, EPA account-level budget execution records, OMB apportionment controls, Treasury account reporting, and any public award data if EPA had obligated funds through contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, or interagency agreements before rescission.
Public visibility is likely limited and somewhat aggregated. The section-specific legal authority is clear, but the exact unobligated balance canceled may be harder for the public to isolate without EPA, OMB, Treasury, or congressional budget materials. If no awards were made, USAspending.gov may show little or no section-specific award activity even though the budget authority was rescinded.
flowchart TD
A[IRA funding] --> B[EPA account]
B --> C[Unobligated balances]
C --> D[Section 60015 rescission]
B --> E[Possible obligations]
E --> F[Contracts or agreements]
E --> G[Internal agency work]
D --> H[OMB controls]
D --> I[Treasury reporting]
F --> J[USAspending data]
F --> K[SAM data]
G --> L[EPA budget records]
H --> M[Congressional oversight]
I --> M
J --> N[Public visibility]
K --> N
L --> N
M --> N
N --> O[Often aggregated]
EPA would identify the affected budget authority and unobligated balances. OMB would reflect the cancellation through apportionment and budget execution controls. Treasury reporting would show account-level changes. If any money had already been obligated before the rescission, those obligations generally would be tracked through the relevant award, contract, interagency, or internal accounting channel rather than canceled automatically by the rescission. Existing obligations and outlays would therefore need to be distinguished from unobligated balances.
For outside observers, the most useful sources are the enacted text of Public Law 119-21, the original Public Law 117-169 appropriation, EPA program materials, CBO budget materials for Public Law 119-21, EPA budget justifications or operating plans, and award-level databases if any obligations occurred.[1][2][6]
Day-to-Day Government Process Changes
For EPA, the section removes the dedicated funding stream for building and maintaining the label program. That can affect staff time, contractor support, technical documentation, data-quality work, stakeholder engagement, registry development, conformity assessment, and program updates.
For FHWA and GSA, the change weakens a shared federal implementation tool. The original statutory design required EPA consultation with FHWA for transportation projects and GSA for federal buildings.[2] EPA later described the label program as supporting federal purchasers and other buyers in identifying cleaner construction materials.[3] Without the dedicated EPA labeling program, FHWA, GSA, and other agencies may have to rely more heavily on interim determinations, agency-specific specifications, environmental product declarations, state programs, industry databases, or project-by-project technical review.
For procurement officials, the day-to-day effect is less standardization. A clear federal label and registry would have made it easier to screen products, compare materials, verify emissions claims, and align solicitations with “Buy Clean” objectives. Removing funding can increase transaction costs and uncertainty for contracting officers, architects, engineers, construction managers, and state or local recipients of federal funds.
For oversight bodies, the rescission also reduces the amount of program implementation activity to review. Oversight may shift from evaluating program performance to tracking the rescission, determining whether any obligations preceded cancellation, and assessing whether agencies can continue any related activities using other funds.
Effects on Consumers
The direct consumer impact is limited because the section does not regulate retail purchases or household construction materials directly. Most effects reach consumers through public construction, infrastructure projects, housing costs, local air quality, and climate-related externalities.
The indirect effects are more meaningful. Construction materials such as concrete, asphalt, steel, and glass are used in roads, bridges, public buildings, schools, transit facilities, military facilities, and housing. EPA stated that construction products and materials account for more than 15 percent of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, and that the label program was designed to help purchasers identify cleaner materials.[3] Weakening that information infrastructure may reduce the likelihood that public projects choose lower-emission materials when cost, availability, and performance are otherwise acceptable.
Consumers may see little immediate price change. The canceled program was primarily an information, labeling, and market-enablement tool, not a household rebate or direct subsidy. Over time, however, weaker demand signals for lower-carbon materials could slow market learning, reduce competition among cleaner material suppliers, and delay broader availability of verified lower-emission products.
Effects on Businesses
The business impacts are mixed by sector, but negative for firms investing in verified low-carbon construction materials.
Manufacturers of lower-emission steel, concrete, asphalt, glass, and related products lose a federally funded labeling pathway that could have helped them distinguish products in procurement markets. EPA’s implementation approach emphasized labels, environmental product declarations, life-cycle data, and a public registry to make cleaner products easier for buyers to find.[3][5] Removing funding reduces the federal government’s role in creating common recognition standards.
Contractors, designers, engineers, and procurement consultants may face greater administrative burdens. Without a well-funded federal label, they may need to review product declarations, state standards, private certifications, or project-specific emissions data on their own. That can favor larger firms with internal sustainability and compliance capacity, while smaller firms may find it harder to navigate low-carbon procurement requirements.
Conventional materials producers that had not invested in lower-carbon processes may experience less federal market pressure. The rescission can reduce near-term compliance and documentation pressure for some suppliers, but it may also weaken U.S. competitiveness in markets where public and private buyers increasingly demand verified low-carbon materials.
The section also affects businesses connected to environmental product declarations, life-cycle assessment, conformity assessment, data verification, and procurement software. EPA’s related Inflation Reduction Act efforts included grants and technical assistance for businesses and supporting organizations to develop and verify environmental product declarations.[7] Although Section 60015 targets the labeling program rather than all embodied-carbon funding, the rescission narrows the federal ecosystem that would have connected product data to procurement decisions.
Environmental and Climate Impact
Direction: negative. The impact is indirect but materially risk-increasing because the section removes funding for a federal labeling program designed to accelerate identification and use of lower-embodied carbon construction materials.
The immediate legal effect is fiscal: unobligated EPA funding is canceled. The section does not itself approve a high-emission construction project, repeal environmental product declarations, or prohibit agencies from considering embodied carbon. But it changes the implementation baseline by making it harder for EPA to build and maintain a standardized label, registry, data-quality system, and federal coordination structure.
The reasonably foreseeable implementation effect is slower and less consistent market adoption of low-embodied carbon materials. EPA’s draft approach focused initially on steel construction products, asphalt mixtures, concrete mixtures, and flat glass, and proposed labeling based on global warming potential data from robust environmental product declarations.[5] Those material categories are central to public infrastructure and building construction, so weakening the label program affects sectors with significant upstream emissions.
The cumulative and downstream effects matter. Embodied carbon includes greenhouse gas emissions associated with extraction, production, transport, manufacturing, use, and disposal of materials and products.[5] If public buyers have less reliable information about lower-emission options, more projects may default to conventional materials with higher life-cycle emissions. That can increase cumulative greenhouse gas emissions relative to a world in which federal labeling made cleaner materials easier to identify and procure.
Existing safeguards remain in place only in a limited sense. Agencies can still use other procurement authorities, state programs, environmental product declarations, private standards, or agency-specific guidance. However, Section 60015 weakens the federal information and coordination layer that was supposed to support those safeguards. It does not eliminate all low-carbon procurement activity, but it removes a dedicated EPA tool intended to make that activity more consistent, transparent, and scalable.
Environmental justice and local community impacts are plausible but indirect. Communities near cement plants, steel mills, asphalt facilities, glass plants, ports, freight corridors, and construction corridors may be affected by the pace of industrial pollution reduction. A stronger low-carbon materials market can support cleaner production practices, lower combustion-related pollution, and reduced climate impacts over time. By reducing federal support for that market signal, the section may slow benefits for communities exposed to industrial emissions and construction-related pollution.
Major uncertainty remains over the exact amount of unobligated funding canceled and whether EPA can continue any portion of the work using other funds. That uncertainty does not make the environmental direction neutral. The statutory change withdraws dedicated funding for a program whose purpose was to identify lower-emission materials and support cleaner procurement, so the environmental and climate effect is directionally negative.
Impact Summary
Section 60015 cancels remaining EPA funding for the Inflation Reduction Act’s $100 million low-embodied carbon construction materials labeling program. Its most direct effect is budgetary: unobligated balances are rescinded and no longer available for EPA’s dedicated label-program work.
The government-process effect is a loss of federal implementation capacity. EPA, FHWA, and GSA lose a funded mechanism for developing consistent labels and purchaser-facing tools for lower-carbon construction materials. Public procurement officials, contractors, and manufacturers may have to rely on a more fragmented mix of environmental product declarations, private standards, agency guidance, and state or local programs.
Consumers are not directly regulated, but they may be affected through public buildings, infrastructure, housing, and long-term climate and pollution outcomes. Businesses that invested in lower-carbon materials or verification systems lose a potentially important federal market-recognition tool, while businesses relying on conventional materials face less near-term federal labeling pressure.
The environmental and climate effects are negative and risk-increasing because the section rescinds funding for a program designed to make lower-emission construction materials easier to identify and purchase. The harm is mostly indirect, cumulative, and downstream: weaker procurement transparency, slower market adoption, reduced emissions-data standardization, and diminished federal support for lowering embodied greenhouse gas emissions in construction materials.
Key References and Sourcing
| Source | Relevance |
|---|---|
| Public Law 119-21, enrolled text on GovInfo | Provides the enacted Section 60015 language rescinding unobligated balances for IRA section 60116. |
| Public Law 117-169, Inflation Reduction Act text on GovInfo | Provides the original $100 million EPA appropriation, availability date, consultation requirements, and program purpose. |
| Federal Register, Draft Approach for Implementation of the EPA Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials | Explains EPA’s statutory authority, program design, target material categories, embodied-carbon definition, and procurement context. |
| EPA, Biden-Harris Administration Announces Label Program to Bolster U.S. Manufacturing of Cleaner Construction Materials | Describes EPA’s implementation plan, intended registry, Buy Clean connection, priority materials, and climate rationale. |
| Inflation Reduction Act Tracker, IRA Section 60116 | Summarizes implementation status, remaining funding at stake, and rescission status for section 60116. |
| Congressional Budget Office, Estimated Budgetary Effects of Public Law 119-21 | Provides budgetary context for Public Law 119-21 and its deficit and spending effects. |
| EPA, New Grant Opportunity Focused on Lower Embodied Carbon Construction Materials | Supports analysis of the broader EPA embodied-carbon ecosystem, including environmental product declaration development and verification. |
| GSA, Buy Clean Inflation Reduction Act Requirements for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials | Provides procurement context for federal low-embodied carbon materials work and related GSA construction-material investments. |
[1] GovInfo, “Public Law 119-21, One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Section 60015,” rescission of unobligated balances for section 60116 of Public Law 117-169, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-119hr1enr/html/BILLS-119hr1enr.htm.
[2] GovInfo, “Public Law 117-169, Inflation Reduction Act, Section 60116,” original $100 million EPA appropriation for low-embodied carbon labeling for construction materials, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-117publ169/html/PLAW-117publ169.htm.
[3] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Label Program to Bolster U.S. Manufacturing of Cleaner Construction Materials,” August 7, 2024, https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-label-program-bolster-us-manufacturing-cleaner.
[4] Inflation Reduction Act Tracker, “IRA Section 60116 – Labelling of Low-Embodied Carbon Materials,” implementation status and rescission status, https://iratracker.org/programs/ira-section-60116-low-embodied-carbon-labelling-for-federal-project-construction-materials/.
[5] Federal Register, “Draft Approach for Implementation of the EPA Label Program for Low Embodied Carbon Construction Materials; Notice of Availability, Webinar and Request for Comment,” February 15, 2024, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/02/15/2024-03083/draft-approach-for-implementation-of-the-epa-label-program-for-low-embodied-carbon-construction.
[6] Congressional Budget Office, “Estimated Budgetary Effects of Public Law 119-21, to Provide for Reconciliation Pursuant to Title II of H. Con. Res. 14,” July 21, 2025, https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61569.
[7] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “New Grant Opportunity Focused on Lower Embodied Carbon Construction Materials Coming Soon!” September 15, 2023, https://www.epa.gov/chemicals-under-tsca/new-grant-opportunity-focused-lower-embodied-carbon-construction-materials.
[8] U.S. General Services Administration, “GSA pilots Buy Clean Inflation Reduction Act Requirements for low embodied carbon construction materials,” May 16, 2023, https://www.gsa.gov/about-gsa/newsroom/news-releases/gsa-pilots-buy-clean-inflation-reduction-act-requirements-for-low-embodied-carbon-construction-materials-05162023.
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