Bill for social programs, climate clears U.S. House
Package would expand child care, health care, address warming
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House on Friday passed a $1.85 trillion spending bill with major expansions of the nation’s social programs — offering child care, health care and rental assistance benefits to millions of Texas families — and over half a trillion dollars to address climate change.
The spending package, known as Build Back Better, would establish universal pre-kindergarten and help pay for child care for nearly 90 percent of children under 5 in Texas, according to White House estimates. It includes a temporary workaround to Medicaid expansion that would provide governmentfunded health care to up to 766,000 more people in Texas, where Republican leaders have declined to extend safety net health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
Democrats remained nearly unanimous in passing the legislation — and delivering a major victory for President Joe Biden — after weeks of infighting and delays. They touted the bill as a historic step forward for the working class and communities of color that will be funded by the wealthy and corporations.
Republicans, meanwhile, predicted the legislation would drive small oil and gas companies out of business, raise the national debt and push inflation — already at a 30-year high — even higher. Of particular concern was a tax on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, which stood to cost the industry billions of dollars a year.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future is uncertain. Moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have not committed to supporting the package, and Democrats continue to
haggle over some elements, including paid family leave and temporary protections for undocumented immigrants and federal tax deductions for state and local taxes.
“The Build Back Better Act will be transformative for nearly every Texas family: delivering historic investments that meet their needs in the wake of the pandemic and will ensure that all can share in the benefits of a growing economy now and for generations to come,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-houston. “Democrats’ visionary plan will rebalance our economy, helping working families and communities of color succeed, while ensuring the wealthiest few and big corporations pay their fair share.”
No Texas Democrat opposed the bill, even as some moderates, including Reps. Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of Mcallen, voiced concerns over elements of the sweeping legislation, including the methane fee, which they warned would drive small oil and gas companies in Texas to lay off workers or even close down.
“We have the ability to bring generational change to our nation, to lift families out of poverty, to make health care more accessible, to create affordable housing, to lower the cost of prescription drugs and give working families a fair shot,” Gonzalez said. “While there are some things I would have liked to have seen added or removed, I am confident this bill will bolster our recovery and bring prosperity to our nation.”
House Republicans railed against the cost of the legislation, which the Congressional Budget Office on Thursday estimated would add about $160 billion to the federal deficit over 10 years.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-the Woodlands, a central figure in the GOP fight against the bill, called Democrats’ claims that it is paid for, in large part, by taxes on the rich “nonsense.”
The bill includes new taxes on the wealthy and corporations but also has a major increase in the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes that even Democrats admit would benefit the wealthy in high-tax states such as New York and California.
“Americans need to know what’s in this bill,” Brady said.
“Let’s look at a day in your life,” he said. “You wake up in the morning and pay a heat-yourhome tax, you shower and get ready and pay a consumer products tax, drop your kids off at child care and pay a toddler tax, drive to work paying higher gas prices, take a break and pay a bigger nicotine tax.”
“So when your head finally hits the pillow, as you lie awake in bed too worried to sleep in a community less safe, in housing more expensive, in a country that lurches from crisis to crisis, ask yourself this question: Under Joe Biden, is my life truly built back better?” Brady said to a smattering of cheers and boos.
“Americans already know the answer. That’s why this president’s polling is at the bottom of the heap.”
Climate plan aimed at Texas
The legislation represents a historic effort to address climate change, with $555 billion set aside to shift the nation toward cleaner forms of energy and theoretically reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to half their 2005 level over the next nine years.
That includes tax credits not only for solar energy, carbon capture and electric cars but also to enable the creation of new clean energy manufacturing sectors to try to compete with China on technology such as electric cars and advanced batteries. The legislation also includes funding to restore forests, which naturally pull carbon from the atmosphere, as well as to modernize and expand the power grid to enable the flow of clean electricity across the nation, from wind turbines in West Texas to cities on the West Coast.
Language forcing power companies to ditch fossil fuels for clean energy were ultimately removed from the bill amid objection from centrist Democrats, but the methane fee for oil and gas production survived in the final House bill. Scheduled to begin in 2023, the fee would start at $900 for every ton of methane that escapes into the atmosphere, rolling up to $1,500 a ton in 2025 — the equivalent of a $60-per-ton carbon fee.
That has drawn opposition from oil and gas companies as well as some Democrats from Texas.
“Congress could have chosen to help alleviate Americans’ rising energy prices by championing policies that support domestic production. Instead they passed a partisan bill that includes a new natural gas tax that will increase Americans’ energy costs on top of soaring inflation,” said Anne Bradbury, president of the American Exploration and Production Council, a trade group.
Texas Democrats, meanwhile, vowed to keep pushing as the bill heads to the Senate for provisions they say are especially important for the state, including broad immigration protections offering temporary work permits and deportation relief to millions of undocumented immigrants.
But those elements face an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats have struggled to make the case that they can be included under Senate rules that allow the spending bill to pass on a simple majority vote.
“In San Antonio, immigrant essential workers have continued to keep our city safe, healthy and moving forward during this pandemic,” said U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-san Antonio. “Congress must deliver this much-needed relief in the form of work permits and deportation protections. The time is now.”