The House and Senate passed the bill along party lines last week after Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reached an agreement after months of negotiations. Both senators were on hand for Tuesday’s signing ceremony. “Let me say from the beginning, with this law, the American people won and the special interests lost,” Mr. Biden told the crowd gathered at the White House. The president had to quiet cabinet members, members of Congress and staff in the audience as they continued to cheer and applaud well after he took the lectern. Passage of the bill was months in the making and at times seemed unlikely with Senate and 50-50 midterm elections fast approaching. He is achieving long-standing Democratic goals to lower prescription drug costs, invest in the clean energy transition and reform the nation’s tax code. “It was one of the few truly historic days in my 30 years in Congress,” Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn said at Mr. Biden’s side, praising the president’s legislative accomplishments. President Biden signs the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, U.S., Tuesday, August 16, 2022. Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the legislation came amid “one of the most productive periods in the history of the Senate,” where Democrats passed gun control, expanded care for veterans exposed to burns and provided billions of dollars in subsidies to boost US semiconductor production. . Schumer also praised the president for guiding the deflation law across the finish line. “I’m confident that this bill will go down as one of the greatest legislative achievements of the past few decades,” Schumer said, adding that it was “the most important bill we’ve passed in a long time.” Manchin, who sat in the front row of the room for the signing, received a standing ovation when Schumer thanked him for his role in passing the bill. The West Virginia Democrat had rejected earlier versions of the President’s Build Back Better agenda, but embraced the Inflation Reduction Act, which was much narrower in scope. The president handed Manchin his pen after signing the bill. The announcement of a deal between Manchin and Schumer last month came as a surprise to many Democrats. Manchin explained to reporters Tuesday why he didn’t share how the deal worked earlier. “I didn’t want anyone to be disappointed again because I didn’t think we could get there,” he said. The new law provides $369 billion to finance energy and climate projects aimed at reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, the most significant investment to fight climate change ever. It would also cap drug costs for seniors in Medicare at $2,000 a year and allow Medicare to negotiate with drug makers on prescription prices. The legislation sets a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% for most large corporations and provides $80 billion in funding to the IRS, allowing the agency to hire thousands of agents and revamp decades-old technology systems. The president signed the bill after returning from a vacation in South Carolina. First lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday and will remain in South Carolina, but the president tested negative and returned to Washington. Considered a close contact of the first lady. In the coming weeks, the White House says the president will travel around the country to articulate how the bill will help Americans. He will also hold an event to celebrate the passage of the bill on September 6. Despite its name, the extent to which the bill will help reduce inflation remains to be seen. A model from Penn Wharton says the bill won’t measurably affect inflation, and the Congressional Budget Office called the impact on inflation “negligible” this year before helping to reduce inflation in future years. But the White House points to a letter signed by more than 120 economists promoting the bill and insisting it would put “downward pressure on inflation by reducing the government’s budget deficit by about $300 billion over the next decade.” A reporter on Tuesday pointed out to Manchin that the CBO doesn’t think the law will do much to reduce inflation. “They weren’t always right, I can tell you,” he replied. Republicans have pointed to models that suggest the law could slightly suppress incomes. “With the stroke of a pen, Joe Biden will guarantee that the careers of Democrats in Congress will be over,” said Republican National Committee Chairwoman Rona McDaniel. “Biden and the Democrats raised taxes on hard-working Americans and gave the IRS $80 billion to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. Americans will never forget that Biden and the Democrats raised taxes during a recession.”
