Senate Democrats pass Inflation Reduction Act package, including largest ever spending on climate change
The estimated
“Today,
Biden, who had his share of long nights during his three decades as a senator, called into the
The president urged the House to pass the bill as soon as possible. Speaker
“This victory is decades in the making,”
“It’s been a long, tough and winding road, but at last, at last we have arrived,” said Senate Majority Leader
“The Senate is making history. I am confident the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining legislative feats of the 21st century,” he said.
Senators engaged in a round-the-clock marathon of voting that began Saturday and stretched late into Sunday afternoon.
The bill ran into trouble midday over objections to the new 15% corporate minimum tax that private equity firms and other industries disliked, forcing last-minute changes.
Despite the momentary setback, the “Inflation Reduction Act” gives
Barely more than one-tenth the size of Biden’s initial 10-year,
Nonpartisan analysts have said the 755-page “Inflation Reduction Act” would have a minor effect on surging consumer prices.
“Democrats have already robbed American families once through inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families a second time,” Senate Minority Leader
In an ordeal imposed on most budget bills like this one, the
Progressive Sen.
Before debate began, the bill’s prescription drug price curbs were diluted by the Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian who said a provision should fall that would impose costly penalties on drug makers whose price increases for private insurers exceed inflation.
It was the bill’s chief protection for the 180 million people with private health coverage they get through work or purchase themselves. Under special procedures that will let
But the thrust of Democrats’ pharmaceutical price language remained. That included letting Medicare negotiate what it pays for drugs for its 64 million elderly recipients, penalizing manufacturers for exceeding inflation for pharmaceuticals sold to Medicare and limiting beneficiaries out-of-pocket drug costs to
The bill also caps Medicare patients’ costs for insulin, the expensive diabetes medication, at
The measure’s final costs were being recalculated to reflect late changes, but overall it would raise more than
Sinema forced
Several Democratic senators joined the
The package keeps to Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on those earning less than
It was on the energy and environment side that compromise was most evident between progressives and Manchin, a champion of fossil fuels and his state’s coal industry.
Clean energy would be fostered with tax credits for buying electric vehicles and manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines. There would be home energy rebates, funds for constructing factories building clean energy technology and money to promote climate-friendly farm practices and reduce pollution in minority communities.
Manchin won billions to help power plants lower carbon emissions plus language requiring more government auctions for oil drilling on federal land and waters. Party leaders also promised to push separate legislation this fall to accelerate permits for energy projects, which Manchin wants to include a nearly completed natural gas pipeline in his state.
Still, environmental groups hailed the passage as a milestone. “Tremendous progress,” said
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