Green New Deal Resolution: Proposals, Cost, and Congressional Status

The Green New Deal resolution is a non-binding statement of goals introduced in Congress in 2019 that lays out an ambitious federal response to climate change paired with a broad economic and social agenda. It has never passed either chamber, it does not create law, spend money, or change any regulation, and every time it has been reintroduced it has stalled in committee. Its ideas, however, have shaped later legislation that did become law.

Who Introduced It and What Kind of Document It Is

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward Markey filed the resolution on February 7, 2019, during the 116th Congress. The House version is H.Res.109; the Senate companion is S.Res.59.¹²

Both are simple resolutions. A simple resolution expresses the opinion of one chamber. It does not go to the other chamber, it does not go to the president, and it cannot allocate money or bind any agency.³ The text says as much on its face: it recognizes “the sense of the House of Representatives” about what federal policy ought to look like.

For any goal in the resolution to have legal effect, Congress would have to write, pass, and enact separate legislation on that specific goal. The resolution is a policy wish list. Nothing in it is self-executing.

What the Resolution Proposes

The document has two halves that get bundled together, which is part of what makes it politically distinctive.

Environmental and Infrastructure Goals

The core target is net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through what the text calls “a fair and just transition for all communities and workers,” along with meeting 100 percent of U.S. power demand from clean, renewable, and zero-emission sources.⁴

Around that sit several very large infrastructure ambitions. Upgrading the national electrical grid into an energy-efficient, distributed “smart” system. Retrofitting every existing building in the country for energy and water efficiency, including electrification of heating and appliances. Eliminating pollution and emissions from the transportation sector through zero-emission vehicle infrastructure, clean public transit, and high-speed rail. Working with farmers and ranchers to cut agricultural emissions while investing in sustainable practices and family farms.⁴

The resolution frames all of this as a 10-year national mobilization, invoking World War II-era industrial effort as the precedent.

Economic and Social Goals

Roughly half the text addresses economic and social policy. The most-discussed provision is a federal guarantee of “a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States.”⁴ The resolution doesn’t set a wage figure or name an administering agency.

It also calls for high-quality healthcare, affordable and safe housing, economic security, and universal access to clean water, clean air, and healthy food. A separate pillar addresses environmental justice for communities that have absorbed disproportionate pollution and climate harms, including indigenous peoples, communities of color, low-income workers, and deindustrialized areas.⁴

On financing, the resolution calls for “adequate capital, including through community grants, public banks, and other public financing,” and says the public should receive “appropriate ownership stakes and returns on investment” for money spent.⁴ It does not attach a price tag or identify revenue sources.

What the Resolution Does Not Say

Viral claims that the resolution would ban air travel, outlaw hamburgers, or eliminate fossil fuels overnight are not in the text. The document speaks in broad terms about cutting emissions “as much as is technologically feasible” and never names industries, foods, or modes of transport to be banned. The language is aspirational, which is both its political strength and the reason it gets mischaracterized.

What It Would Cost

Because the resolution is aspirational and not legislative, no Congressional Budget Office score exists. Outside estimates vary by orders of magnitude, because each one has to assume which programs would actually be built and how fast.

The American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute led by former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, estimated implementation across six sectors at $51 trillion to $93 trillion over a decade. Economist Robert Pollin at the University of Massachusetts Amherst estimated roughly $18 trillion spread over 30 years could reach net-zero, and considered the 10-year timeline unrealistic. Economists at the Roosevelt Institute argued the spending would be manageable at 3 to 5 percent of GDP per year because it would activate unused economic capacity rather than displace existing activity.

Critics say the combined environmental and social program could push government spending toward three-quarters of economic activity. Supporters argue the cost of unmitigated climate damage, health effects, and lost agricultural output would exceed any investment figure. The resolution itself takes no position on any of these numbers.

Where It Stands in Congress

In the House, the 2019 version attracted co-sponsors but never received a floor vote. In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called a procedural vote in March 2019. The cloture motion failed 0–57, with 43 senators voting “present.” No senator voted yes.

The sponsors have reintroduced the resolution in every Congress since. Ocasio-Cortez filed H.Res.332 in April 2021 and H.Res.319 in April 2023.⁵⁶ Neither advanced past committee referral. As of mid-2026, no confirmed reintroduction in the 119th Congress has been identified.

How Its Ideas Reached Actual Law

The resolution never passed, but its influence is visible in two laws enacted during the 117th Congress: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Ocasio-Cortez’s office has framed both as partial implementations of Green New Deal principles.⁷

The Inflation Reduction Act was described by the Department of Energy as “the single largest investment in climate and energy in American history.”⁸ It funded clean energy tax credits, electric vehicle incentives, and domestic clean-energy manufacturing subsidies, and it created the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which awarded $27 billion in grants for clean energy financing.⁹

Much of that is being unwound. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, scaled back the IRA’s clean energy tax credits. The residential clean energy credit and the energy-efficient home improvement credit were terminated for property placed in service or expenditures made after December 31, 2025. The commercial clean vehicles credit and the alternative fuel vehicle refueling credit face similar cutoffs in 2025 and 2026.

The resolution itself is unchanged from 2019: a non-binding statement of ambition. Whether any more of its goals become law depends on future Congresses and future elections.

1
Congress.gov. H.Res.109 – 116th Congress (2019-2020) Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal
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Congress.gov. S.Res.59 – 116th Congress (2019-2020) A Resolution Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal
3
U.S. Senate. Types of Legislation
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Congress.gov. H.Res.109 Full Text – Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal
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Congress.gov. H.Res.332 – 117th Congress (2021-2022) Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal
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Congress.gov. H.Res.319 – 118th Congress (2023-2024) Recognizing the Duty of the Federal Government to Create a Green New Deal
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Office of Representative Ocasio-Cortez. Green New Deal Implementation Guide
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U.S. Department of Energy. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Awards 27B in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Grants to Accelerate Clean Energy Solutions