Tax credits for disaster businesses become tradeable—at public expense
H.R. 7450 — Disaster Zone Energy Affordability and Investment Act · Filed by W. Steube (R-FL) · 35 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 9, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill allows businesses operating in federally declared disaster zones (declared after December 31, 2023) to transfer unused general business tax credits to other taxpayers, rather than carrying them forward only against their own future income. The transfer must occur within two years of the disaster declaration and applies to credits for energy-related and certain other investments. Consolidated corporate groups are treated as a single taxpayer for this purpose.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a tax-code amendment that converts non-transferable credits into transferable ones for a specific class of taxpayers (disaster-zone businesses). This is a targeted tax relief measure, not a broad public-safety or affordability program despite the title's framing.
What the text implies
- The bill's title emphasizes 'Energy Affordability' but the mechanism is credit transferability for any general business credit, not specifically energy-related affordability for consumers or low-income households.
- Consolidated corporate groups are treated as single taxpayers, potentially allowing large multi-entity enterprises to pool and transfer credits more efficiently than smaller businesses.
- The two-year window for eligible expenditures is fixed from the disaster declaration date, creating a hard deadline that may disadvantage businesses with longer recovery timelines.
- The Treasury registration requirement is waived until the online tool is updated, creating potential administrative gaps and unequal treatment depending on when registration systems are ready.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Disaster-affected businesses and their employees may benefit from faster recovery capital and reduced tax burden, supporting local economic rebuilding. However, the primary beneficiaries are businesses with unused tax credits (often larger enterprises with complex tax positions), and the revenue cost to the federal government is borne by all taxpayers, creating a subsidy funded by the general public for a narrow class of disaster-zone businesses.
Who stands to gain
- businesses operating in federally declared disaster zones with unused general business tax credits
- energy companies and renewable energy developers in disaster areas
- consolidated corporate groups with multiple subsidiaries in disaster zones
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Code Section 6418, Internal Revenue Code Section 38, Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Section 165(h)(5)(C) IRC, Public Law 119-21, U.S. Department of the Treasury, President (disaster declaration authority), State Governors (state disaster declaration authority)
Where it stands
35 cosponsors: 28 Republicans, 7 Democrats.
- Feb 9, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 9, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
12 lobbying clients named this bill on 14 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $47,658,610 in lobbying spend. A filing names 60 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 93% of bills with at least one filing.
W. Steube, the sponsor, reported $646,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $19,500 of that came from 2 PACs tied to these lobbying clients.
- Chamber of Commerce of the U.S.A. — $36,700,000 on 2 filings
- Edison Electric Institute — $4,248,610 on 2 filings
- Southern Company — $3,220,000 on 1 filing
- Duke Energy Corporation — $2,280,000 on 1 filing
- Xcel Energy Inc — $370,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,113 characters) on Apr 16, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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