The House used a party line vote of 220-207 to pass the legislation, prompting hugs from Democrats on the House floor and cheers from White House staff watching on television. “Today, the American people won. Special interests lost,” tweeted the vacationing Biden, who appeared to be beaming in a White House photo as he watched the vote on television from Kiawah Island, South Carolina. He said he would sign the legislation next week. The measure is but a shadow of the larger, more ambitious plan to boost environmental and social programs that Biden and his party unveiled early last year. Even so, Democrats happily declared victory on top goals like delivering Congress’ biggest investment to curb carbon emissions, cap pharmaceutical costs and tax big corporations, hoping to show they can wring achievements from a usually cloistered Washington that often disappoints voters. “Today is a day of celebration, a day when we take another giant step in our momentous agenda,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who minutes later announced the final vote as she presided over the chamber. He said the measure “responds to the moment, ensuring our families thrive and our planet survives”. Republicans strongly opposed the legislation, calling it a waste of liberal pipe dreams that would raise taxes and raise the cost of living for families. They did the same on Sunday, but Senate Democrats rallied and used Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote to push the measure through that chamber 50-50. “Democrats, more than any other majority in history, are addicted to spending other people’s money, regardless of what we can afford,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. “I can almost see joy in their eyes.” Biden’s original, 10-year, $3.5 trillion proposal also included free preschool, paid family and medical leave, expanded Medicare benefits and eased immigration restrictions. That collapsed after centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., said it was too costly, using the leverage that every Democrat has in the evenly divided Senate. However, the final legislation remained substantive. Its pillar is about $375 billion over 10 years to encourage industry and consumers to shift from carbon emissions to cleaner forms of energy. This includes $4 billion to address the West’s devastating drought. The spending, tax credits and loans would boost technology such as solar panels, consumer efforts to improve the energy efficiency of homes, emissions reduction equipment for coal and natural gas power plants, and air pollution controls for farms, ports and low-income communities. Another $64 billion will help 13 million people pay premiums over the next three years for private health insurance. Medicare would gain the power to negotiate its drug costs, initially in 2026 for just 10 drugs. Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket prescription costs will be capped at $2,000 starting in 2025, and starting next year they will pay no more than $35 a month for insulin, the costly diabetes drug. The bill would raise about $740 billion in revenue over the decade, more than a third of the state savings from lower drug prices. More would come from higher taxes on companies worth about $1 billion, levies on companies that buy back their own stock and stronger IRS tax collections. About $300 billion will be left to cover budget deficits, a fraction of the period’s projected $16 trillion total. Amid GOP attacks on the FBI over its court-authorized search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate for sensitive documents, Republicans have repeatedly pushed the IRS budget bill wildly. That aims to collect about $120 billion in unpaid taxes over the next decade, and Republicans have falsely claimed the IRS will hire 87,000 agents to target middle-class families. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said Democrats would “arm” the IRS with agents, “many of whom will be trained to use deadly force, to go after any American citizen.” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Thursday on “Fox and Friends” if there would be an “IRS strike force that comes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small businessman.” Fewer IRS personnel are armed, and Democrats say the bill’s $80 billion budget increase over 10 years will replace waves of retirees, not just agents, and modernize equipment. They said typical families and small businesses would not be targeted, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen instructing the IRS this week not to “increase the share of small businesses or households below the $400,000 threshold” that would be audited. Republicans say the legislation’s new business taxes will raise prices, exacerbating the nation’s run of worst inflation since 1981. Although Democrats have called the measure an inflation-reducing law, nonpartisan analysts say it will do little noticeable effect on prices. The GOP also says the bill would raise taxes on low- and middle-income families. An analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, which did not include the tax cuts in the health care and energy bills, estimated that corporate tax increases would marginally affect these taxpayers but indirectly, in part because of lower prices of shares and wages. “House Democrats have ensured that voters will fire them this fall,” said House GOP campaign committee spokeswoman Torunn Sinclair. In an email, he listed dozens of Democrats in competitive re-election who will face Republican attacks on raising taxes and authorizing the IRS to “target their constituents.” Democratic interest groups had their own warnings. “We will make sure every Republican who voted against this bill is held accountable for prioritizing polluters and corporate special interests over the health and well-being of their constituents,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, a top official at the League of Conservation Voters. The bill covers three months in which Congress passed legislation on veterans benefits, the semiconductor industry, gun controls for young buyers and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the addition of Sweden and Finland to NATO. All passed with bipartisan support, suggesting Republicans also want to show off their productive side. It’s unclear whether voters will reward Democrats for the legislation after months of painfully high inflation dominating voters’ attention, Biden’s dangerously low approval ratings and a steady history of midterm elections that hurt the party that holds the White House. Biden called his $3.5 trillion plan “Get Better.” In addition to social and environmental initiatives, he proposed restoring Trump-era tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations and $555 billion for climate efforts, well above the money in Friday’s legislation. With Manchin opposed to those amounts, it was narrowed down to a roughly $2 trillion measure that Democrats passed the House in November. He unexpectedly sank that bill, too, earning scorn from his exasperated fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the White House. Recent talks between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., appeared fruitless until the two’s unexpectedly announced agreement last month on the new package. Manchin won concessions for the fossil fuel industries he defends, including processes for more oil drilling on federal lands. So did centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., who ended up eliminating planned higher taxes on hedge fund managers and helped win over drought funds.
Associated Press reporter Seung Min Kim in Kiawah Island and congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
