House OKs $2 trillion social issues bill
GOP united against it; changes in Senate likely
WASHINGTON — A fractious House handed President Joe Biden a big victory Friday by approving a roughly $2 trillion social and environment bill, as Democrats cast aside disputes that had stalled the measure for months and hampered efforts to sell their priorities to voters.
Lawmakers approved the legislation 220-213 as every Democrat but one backed it, overcoming unanimous Republican opposition. The measure now heads to the Senate, where changes are anticipated and disputes between cost-conscious Democratic moderates and progressives who seek bold policy changes are expected to flare anew.
On Friday, Democrats were happy to shake off a period of off-year election setbacks, lower Biden poll numbers and public disgruntlement over inflation, stalled supply chains and the pandemic. All that and the party’s internal bickering have left voters with little idea of how the legislation might help them, polls have shown.
“Above all, it puts us on the path to build our economy back better than before by rebuilding the backbone of America: working people and the middle class,” Biden said in a statement.
He told reporters at the White House that he expected the legislation to “take a while” to move through the Senate, but declared, “I will sign it. Period.”
The legislation, among the most expensive in years, is far-reaching. It rewrites tax, health care, environment, education, housing and other policies, shoring up low- and middle-income families, helping the elderly and combating climate change.
Most of it would be paid for with tax increases on the
country’s highest earners, biggest corporations and companies doing business abroad. That includes new surtaxes on people earning more than $10 million a year and a corporate minimum tax.
Because of its size, scope and status as a symbol of what Democrats stand for, each party thinks the package will help in next year’s midterm elections, with House and Senate control at stake.
“Now, it’s going to be just telling our story — that’s the challenge” said Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“If you’re worried about rising prices shrinking your paychecks more and more each month, these trillions in new government spending will only make it worse,” said Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on Ways and Means.
GOP lawmakers sang, “Hey, hey, goodbye,” taunting Democrats during the vote. Republicans call the measure a waste of money that will worsen budget deficits, overheat an inflation-battered economy and show voters that Democrats can’t resist ever-larger government.
Democrats see the 2,100-page legislation as overdue and offering long-lasting help for a vast swath of the nation.
“Under this dome, for centuries, members of Congress have stood exactly where we stand to pass legislation of extraordinary consequence in our nation’s history and for our nation’s future,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, adding that the act “will be the pillar of health and financial security in America.”
Pelosi, D-Calif, added, “If you are a parent, a senior, a child, a worker, if you are an American, this bill is for you.”
“Build Back Better,” chanted Democrats, embracing and jumping with glee at the front of the chamber as the roll call wound down. That’s the name Biden gave the bill — a companion piece to his other domestic priority, the bipartisan $1 trillion package of broadband, road and other infrastructure projects he signed into law this week.
In Congress’ latest dose of partisan bitterness, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had delayed the latest bill’s expected approval Thursday when he unleashed an eight-hour, 32-minute speech against the legislation, the president and Democrats.
McCarthy glared as Democrats booed and groaned during what became the longest speech in House history, remarks that included insults aimed at Pelosi. As minority leader in 2018, she had held the record, speaking for eight hours and seven minutes about immigration.
“I don’t know if it’s a farewell tour,” McCarthy said of recent trips to Europe by Pelosi, who some think may be serving her last term in Congress. “If it is, I want a T-shirt.”
NEW SPENDING
Most of the bill’s costs come from new spending, though there are also hundreds of billions in tax credits for encouraging certain goals.
It has more than $500 billion for clean energy projects plus tax incentives for utilities turning to less-polluting fuels and people buying electric vehicles. There’s money for child care, job training, housing, free preschool for 3- and 4-yearolds, in-home care for senior citizens and new hearing benefits for Medicare recipients.
Individuals and the government would save money from new curbs on prescription drug prices, though those provisions are modest compared with the requirements that most Democrats sought. There would be extended tax credits for families with children, for some low-earning workers and for people purchasing private health coverage.
In language that helped win support from lawmakers from high-cost coastal states, the bill would increase federal deductions that people can take for state and local taxes. The provision, which would benefit mainly affluent earners, would cost more than $220 billion over the next five years, making it one of the legislation’s costliest programs.
The measure would also finance a new requirement for four weeks of paid family leave and create temporary work permits so millions of immigrants could remain in the U.S. for up to a decade. Both face an uncertain fate in the Senate.
That chamber’s 50-50 split plus solid GOP opposition gives every Democrat veto power. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., who helped slash the bill’s 10-year cost from $3.5 trillion, has opposed the family leave provision. And the Senate parliamentarian enforces rules that make it hard to include policy-heavy provisions such as major immigration law changes.
Pelosi downplayed the extent of possible changes and vowed that “at the end of the day, we will have a great bill.”
SELECTIVE WORRIES
The bill would worsen projected budget deficits by $160 billion over the coming decade, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated.
That would be higher except for $207 billion in projected extra tax collections by bolstering Internal Revenue Service spending for audits, largely of the rich.
Both parties worry about deficits selectively. Republicans passed tax cuts in 2017 that worsened red ink by $1.9 trillion, while Democrats enacted a covid-19 relief bill this year with that same price tag.
Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, one of Congress’ more-conservative Democrats, was the only no vote from his party. He had raised concerns about the provision that would increase the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes paid, from $10,000 a year to $80,000.
But Golden suggested in a series of statements on Twitter that his vote could still be won with changes to the so-called SALT proposal and other possible tweaks once it reaches the Senate.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan organization favoring fiscal constraint, estimated that the bill would cost nearly $5 trillion if Democrats hadn’t made some provisions temporary to be more affordable. For instance, tax credits for children are extended for just a year, although Democrats would make them permanent if they could.
“This bill would worsen inflation by pumping trillions of dollars in wasteful spending into the economy, give tax cuts to the wealthy, hike taxes on middle-class families and add hundreds of billions to the national debt,” Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman, said in a statement that derided the bill as “Build Back Broke.”
“Americans will see through their lies, and the RNC will make sure voters don’t forget the Democrats’ failures come next November,” McDaniel said.
A spokeswoman for the Republicans’ House campaign arm said Democrats “seem intent on destroying our economy before they lose the majority.” And in the Senate, party leaders were openly pressuring Democratic senators to tank their party’s marquee legislation.
Just a few Senate Democrats can protect American families from these radical and painful policies,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader. “It is up to them to kill this bill.”
Democratic leaders have suggested that the Senate would move to pass the legislation before the end of the year, despite a number of other fiscal deadlines piling up in December.
“We will act as quickly as possible to get this bill to President Biden’s desk and deliver help for middle-class families,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, said in a statement.