Newsman: House Democrat on Friday voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) sending the multibillion-dollar climate, health and tax bill to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. Over uniform Republican opposition the package was passed along party lines.
The more than $700 billion package includes the nation’s most extensive investments ever in new climate initiatives; allows Medicare to negotiate some drug prices; and extends Affordable Care Act subsidies while reducing the federal deficit with a 15% corporate minimum tax and with an excise tax on corporate stock buybacks.
Biden soon tweeted his reaction to the House passage: “Today, the American people won. Special interests lost.”
“With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the House, families will see lower prescription drug prices, lower health care costs, and lower energy costs,” he wrote, and said he planned to sign the bill next week.
The House GOP leader, Kevin McCarthy, on Friday called the bill “misguided” and “tone deaf.” He spoke on the House floor for about 50 minutes ahead of the vote, mostly blasting the widespread use of proxy-voting for the bill’s passage and the IRA’s boosted IRS tax enforcement measures, which supporters say will actually target the wealthy who shuck their tax bills.
“Democrats more than any other majority in history are addicted to spending other people’s money,” McCarthy said.
Over half of the House voted by-proxy, which prolonged the bill’s passage by designating a certain member to cast in-person votes on behalf of absent lawmakers.
Despite the legislation’s name, Republicans have pointed out, it will have only a negligible effect on inflation in the short term, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found.
But the CBO said it would reduce federal budget deficits by $102 billion over 10 years.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the IRA “one of the most comprehensive significant pieces of legislation that has passed the Senate and the Congress in decades.”
“While much of D.C. was focused on the Senate vote earlier this week, the White House was just as focused on the House at the same time,” a White House official told ABC News, noting that the administration had been in contact with House leadership throughout the week.
At a press conference ahead of the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was questioned on whether the bill could actually tame high — but slightly cooling — inflation in the next months.
“Well, you have to get started,” Pelosi said, noting that inflation is caused by many factors, like the COVID-19 supply chain crunch and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The IRA passed the Senate on Sunday without a single Republican supporter. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie breaking vote after a 16-hour “vote-a-rama” that saw a slew of proposed amendments by both parties — and saw Senate Democrats forced to make last-minute adjustments to the bill’s tax provisions.
