WASHINGTON — Democrats in the House on Friday pushed their more than $700 billion domestic policy package across the finish line, calling President Biden for his signature to address drug costs, raise taxes on large corporations and combat global warming. Sent to your long negotiation plan.
The passage of the resolution, now by both houses of Congress, marks the end of a long-fought effort by Democrats to approve legislation addressing Mr Biden’s top domestic and noble economic priorities. While the package is the result of a deal that was more narrow than the initial giant social spending plan introduced by the president last year, its approval gives Democrats a significant legislative victory ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Called the Inflation Reduction Act, the bill passed the House in a 220 to 207 party-line vote, days after the Senate approved it in 51 to 50. Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote in an evenly divided Senate, where Democrats used a legislative process called budget reconciliation to pass the bill without requiring Republican support.
The White House said on Friday that Mr Biden would sign it sometime next week. He is currently on vacation in South Carolina.
“It’s a kitchen table issue,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the legislation at a Friday morning news conference. “If you’re sitting at your kitchen table and wonder how you’re going to pay the bills. Your health care bills, your prescription drug bills, this bill is for you.”
While the House is on its week-long summer break, which stretches through mid-September, lawmakers were called back to Washington on Friday to vote on the plan. Several members filed letters for vote-by-proxy with the House Clerk, a process that allows them to nominate any other member present for the proceedings to vote.
Its passage by the House follows a string of summer achievements for the president and his party, including passing a bipartisan gun reform and mental health bill, bipartisan legislation to promote US manufacturing of semiconductor computer chips, expanding health care benefits, and more. Includes a bipartisan plan for veterans developing diseases from exposure to toxic substances from burn pits and the killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike.
While the Congress-approved spending plan doesn’t include Democrats’ priorities such as paid family leave and universal pre-K, it makes for the largest investment by the federal government in fighting climate change — $369 for the Clean Energy and Climate Initiative. Billion. The package allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices, extends increased health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act through 2025 and an annual cap of $2,000 on out-of-pocket drug costs and costs for Medicare enrollees. It imposes a monthly cap of $35 on insulin.
The tax revenue component of the law includes a 15% corporate minimum tax for corporations that earn more than $1 billion each year, and stricter tax enforcement and compliance by the Internal Revenue Service, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will bring in an additional $204 billion. . in revenue for over a decade.
According to the Budget Office, the Democrats’ legislative package would reduce the federal budget deficit by $102 billion over 10 years, although estimates did not factor in new revenue from tighter tax enforcement.
The $740 billion bill falls far short of the broader, $3.5 trillion social spending plan called Build Back Better, which Mr Biden proposed to Congress last year. The comprehensive plan quickly ran into headwinds in the Senate, where Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, raised concerns about new federal spending driving inflation.
The White House engaged in months of talks with Manchin throughout 2021, though talks failed in December.
But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer went ahead with efforts to strike a deal on the proposal, and struck a surprise deal with Munchkin late last month, after talks derailed and resurfaced.
The law also received support from Sen. Kirsten Cinema, a moderate Democrat from Arizona, who is another significant vote, although he did allow Democrats to remove a provision increasing the tax on “interest interest” or profits that executives of private equity firms have. used to go. She and other Western senators also pushed for $4 billion for drought relief.
The bill underwent further changes by the Senate after it was reviewed by MP Elizabeth McDonough to ensure compliance with the reconciliation rules, who said a piece of the Democrats’ drug-pricing plan that fines drugmakers that are private Insurance companies raise prices beyond inflation. to be removed However, his green signal of the rest of the legislation cleared the way for the upper house to take it up.
WASHINGTON — Democrats in the House on Friday pushed their more than $700 billion domestic policy package across the finish line, calling President Biden for his signature to address drug costs, raise taxes on large corporations and combat global warming. Sent to your long negotiation plan.
The passage of the resolution, now by both houses of Congress, marks the end of a long-fought effort by Democrats to approve legislation addressing Mr Biden’s top domestic and noble economic priorities. While the package is the result of a deal that was more narrow than the initial giant social spending plan introduced by the president last year, its approval gives Democrats a significant legislative victory ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Called the Inflation Reduction Act, the bill passed the House in a 220 to 207 party-line vote, days after the Senate approved it in 51 to 50. Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote in an evenly divided Senate, where Democrats used a legislative process called budget reconciliation to pass the bill without requiring Republican support.
The White House said on Friday that Mr Biden would sign it sometime next week. He is currently on vacation in South Carolina.
“It’s a kitchen table issue,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the legislation at a Friday morning news conference. “If you’re sitting at your kitchen table and wonder how you’re going to pay the bills. Your health care bills, your prescription drug bills, this bill is for you.”
While the House is on its week-long summer break, which stretches through mid-September, lawmakers were called back to Washington on Friday to vote on the plan. Several members filed letters for vote-by-proxy with the House Clerk, a process that allows them to nominate any other member present for the proceedings to vote.
Its passage by the House follows a string of summer achievements for the president and his party, including passing a bipartisan gun reform and mental health bill, bipartisan legislation to promote US manufacturing of semiconductor computer chips, expanding health care benefits, and more. Includes a bipartisan plan for veterans developing diseases from exposure to toxic substances from burn pits and the killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike.
While the Congress-approved spending plan doesn’t include Democrats’ priorities such as paid family leave and universal pre-K, it makes for the largest investment by the federal government in fighting climate change — $369 for the Clean Energy and Climate Initiative. Billion. The package allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices, extends increased health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act through 2025 and an annual cap of $2,000 on out-of-pocket drug costs and costs for Medicare enrollees. It imposes a monthly cap of $35 on insulin.
The tax revenue component of the law includes a 15% corporate minimum tax for corporations that earn more than $1 billion each year, and stricter tax enforcement and compliance by the Internal Revenue Service, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will bring in an additional $204 billion. . in revenue for over a decade.
According to the Budget Office, the Democrats’ legislative package would reduce the federal budget deficit by $102 billion over 10 years, although estimates did not factor in new revenue from tighter tax enforcement.
The $740 billion bill falls far short of the broader, $3.5 trillion social spending plan called Build Back Better, which Mr Biden proposed to Congress last year. The comprehensive plan quickly ran into headwinds in the Senate, where Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, raised concerns about new federal spending driving inflation.
The White House engaged in months of talks with Manchin throughout 2021, though talks failed in December.
But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer went ahead with efforts to strike a deal on the proposal, and struck a surprise deal with Munchkin late last month, after talks derailed and resurfaced.
The law also received support from Sen. Kirsten Cinema, a moderate Democrat from Arizona, who is another significant vote, although he did allow Democrats to remove a provision increasing the tax on “interest interest” or profits that executives of private equity firms have. used to go. She and other Western senators also pushed for $4 billion for drought relief.
The bill underwent further changes by the Senate after it was reviewed by MP Elizabeth McDonough to ensure compliance with the reconciliation rules, who said a piece of the Democrats’ drug-pricing plan that fines drugmakers that are private Insurance companies raise prices beyond inflation. to be removed However, his green signal of the rest of the legislation cleared the way for the upper house to take it up.