WASHINGTON — House on Friday approved a sprawling, roughly $2 trillion social policy, climate and tax measure that is a pillar of President Biden’s domestic agenda.
The product of months of intense negotiations, package It will strengthen the federal safety net, increase support for children and families with childcare subsidies and universal kindergarten, expand health coverage, increase housing assistance, and invest heavily in tackling climate change.
The measure looks set to change as it moves through the equally divided Senate, where Republicans are unanimously opposed and Democrats can’t afford to lose a single vote from their party.
This is where it comes out of Parliament.
New support for children and families.
The bill would provide nearly $400 billion to help states create six-year universal kindergarten and affordable childcare programs.
This includes an estimated $100 billion in funding for childcare expansion and subsidies over the first three years and similar spending levels over the program. The proposal is designed to ensure that the vast majority of families—those who earn up to $300,000 in 4-person households—don’t spend more than 7 percent of their income on childcare. Families earning less than 75 percent of the state’s median income will pay nothing.
The federal government will provide at least $18 billion and unspecified spending levels over the course of the program to fund state programs that provide preschool programs for all 3- and 4-year-olds. For the first three years, it will cover 100 percent of a state’s universal preschool spending, and in subsequent years, it will pay 90 percent in the fourth year, 75 percent in the fifth year, and 60 percent in the sixth year. states. Preschoolers also set aside $2.5 billion annually to increase the salary of staff in Head Start programs.
The legislation will extend by one year the expansion of the Child Tax Credit included in the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief law that went into effect earlier this year. This provides monthly payments to approximately 35 million families, with $300 per child under 6 and $250 per child aged 6 to 17.
The bill would also create a new federal program to cover four weeks of paid family and medical leave, but that provision is likely to be passed from the Senate. .
– Erica L. Green
It’s a big investment in climate change programs.
The $555 billion for climate change programs is the largest spending item on the broader bill, easily making it the largest climate change bill in United States history.
The bill alone will not be enough to meet Mr Biden’s commitment to halve US emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. However, it would get the country about one-third to one-half of that goal, according to an analysis by. Rhodium Group is an independent research organization.
According to the rhodium analysis, the law, once enacted, could reduce the U.S.’s greenhouse gas pollution by nearly one billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, roughly equivalent to keeping all cars in the United States off the road for a year.
NS at the center of new climate spending about $320 billion in tax incentives for wind, solar and nuclear power producers and buyers, incentives aimed at accelerating the transition from oil, gas and coal. Electric vehicle buyers will also benefit with tax credits of up to $12,500, depending on the part of the vehicle made in the United States and whether it is made by union workers.
There will be $1 billion to build EV charging stations, $2.9 billion to make the power grid more conducive to transmitting wind and solar power, and $12.5 billion for homeowners installing more energy-efficient appliances. The bill includes $55 billion to promote climate-friendly agriculture and forestry and research programs, $29 billion for a “green bank” program to help communities fund renewable energy projects, and $10 billion to help rural electricity cooperatives cover the cost of transitioning from coal. will provide. facilities to renewable energy
The parliamentary measure also includes a new fee to major oil and gas companies for spills of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. However, this provision could also be weakened or removed due to opposition from Mr Manchin, whose state is one of the country’s largest natural gas producers.
– Coral Davenport
Expanding health coverage.
The legislation will punch multiple holes in the Affordable Care Act and bring the country closer to the Democrats. universal health insurance target. The bill will extend the generous subsidies it has reduced the cost of premiums for Americans who buy their own insurance. will permanently extend a program that provides millions of children Guarantees one year of Medicaid coverage for eligible women who come from low-income families within the year after they have a child.
In a provision for vulnerable persons without health insurance, comprehensive health insurance for poor adults Living in 12 states that refuse to expand their Medicaid programs, giving them subsidized access to private Obamacare plans. Many of these changes will expire after 2025, but millions more Americans will gain health insurance over the next few years.
Older Americans would reap a host of new benefits. Medicare would begin covering hearing aids and audiology services in 2023. Medicare’s drug aid will become stronger, reducing the total amount any patient has to pay to $2,000 a year. And patients who need long-term care services will see new funding so they can get that care. at home instead of a nursing home.
However, funding for home care is smaller than the president’s initial plan, and lawmakers have brushed aside popular provisions that would also add Medicare coverage for eyeglasses and eyeglasses. dental care.
For the first time, the government will be empowered. adjust prices from some prescription drugs. Medicare will be allowed to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers on a number of expensive drugs in the coming years. And drug manufacturers will be prohibited from raising drug prices more than the inflation rate. Drug price provisions are less aggressive than an original Assembly proposal, but are still expected to have significant effects over time.
– Margot Sanger-Katz
Addressing immigration issues.
The legislation would expand the power of the secretary of homeland security to grant a temporary status known as parole. undocumented immigrants living in the country for ten years, granting them work permits and protecting them from deportation. Work permits would last for five years and would then need to be renewed.
The proposal will include most of the undocumented immigrants who have been living in the United States continuously since January 1, 2011, who could help 7 million to 8 million people. But significantly, the proposal does not create a new pathway to naturalization once such schemes have been disqualified under Senate rules.
The current bill essentially codifies an enhanced version of the Deferred Action for Childhood Advances, or DACA program, introduced by President Barack Obama in 2012.
Mr. Biden‘s plan will also address the legal green card pile-up, which will seek to liberalize hundreds of thousands of visas dating back to 1992 that various administrations cannot use, and making them available to immigrants who are now caught in a bureaucratic quagmire.
The plan also includes $2.8 billion. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to evaluate and process immigrants’ paperwork more efficiently.
– Luke Broadwater
Investing in affordable housing.
According to the Biden administration, the measure includes the largest investment in affordable housing in history. It would provide $166 billion in housing assistance, which included building or maintaining more. 1 million affordable homes and offers rental and down payment assistance.
About $65 billion will go towards the backlog of housing repairs, and $25 billion will go to rent aid, mostly through housing vouchers. The plan will also invest $15 billion in the creation of new rental homes for the lowest-income households.
The proposal will also establish a $10 billion grant program that will support access to affordable housing and increase mobility for low-income riders and residents of disadvantaged communities. The funds will be used to build new passageways and expand service and repair facilities.
– Madeleine Ngo
Taxpayers and the rich.
The bill raises the cap on how much state and local taxes can be cut, especially for residents of high-tax states like New York, California, and New Jersey. Reversing the so-called SALT cap, which currently expires after 2025, has been a key priority for lawmakers in these states since it was introduced as part of the 2017 Republican tax code.
The upper limit will rise from the current $10,000 limit to $80,000 and will be extended through 2030 and then lowered to $10,000 in 2031. Thus, the upper limit will expire permanently in 2032. Vermont Senators Bernie Sanders and New Jersey’s Bob Menendez are discussing a separate agreement to remove the cap of at least $550,000 for families and apply it permanently to higher-income homeowners.
The parliamentary bill also introduces new taxes on the wealthy and corporations.
Taxpayers with adjusted gross income of more than $10 million will face a 5 percent tax in addition to the 37 percent marginal tax rate they currently pay. Those who earn more than $25 million will face an additional 3 percent tax.
Profitable companies with more than $1 billion in book income—profits that firms report to their shareholders but do not report to the IRS—will now be subject to a 15 percent minimum tax.
Large multinationals will see the tax rate on foreign earnings rise from 10.5 percent to 15 percent.
– Alan Rappeport