House OKs $2T social, climate bill in Biden victory
WASHINGTON — A fractious House handed President Joe Biden a marquee victory Friday by approving a roughly $2 trillion social and environment bill, as Democrats cast aside disputes that for months had stalled the measure 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 certain and disputes between cost-conscious Democratic moderates and progressives who seek bold policy changes will flare anew.
For the moment, Democrats were happy to shake off a dispiriting period of off-year election setbacks, tumbling Biden poll numbers and public disgruntlement over inflation, stalled supply chains and the pandemic.
“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 he expected the legislation to “take awhile“to move through the Senate but declared, “I will sign it. Period.”
The legislation, among the most expensive in years, is remarkable for its reach. It rewrites tax, health care, environment, education, housing and other policies, shoring up low- and middleincome families, helping the elderly and combating climate change.
Most of it would be paid for with tax boosts on the country’s highest earners, biggest corporations and companies doing business abroad. That includes new surtaxes on people earning over $10 million annually 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, when Republicans have a solid chance at capturing House and Senate control.
Democrats see the 2,100page legislation as overdue and long-lasting help for a vast swath of the nation.
The bill “will be the pillar of health and financial security in America,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalif. “If you are a parent, a senior, a child, a worker, if you are an American, this bill is for you.”
In Congress’ latest dose of partisan bitterness, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had delayed the latest bill’s expected approval on Thursday when he unleashed an eight hour 32 minute diatribe 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 personal insults aimed at Pelosi. As minority leader in 2018, she held the previous 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.”