WASHINGTON — Democrats pushed their election-year economic package to a Senate vote on Sunday, a hard-fought compromise less ambitious than President Joe Biden’s original domestic vision but still satisfying deep-seated party goals of slowing global warming, drug cost containment and massive corporate taxation. The estimated $740 billion package heads next door to the House, where lawmakers are poised to uphold Biden’s priorities, a stunning reversal of what seemed like a lost and doomed effort that has suddenly roared back into political life. Cheers erupted as Senate Democrats held together, 51-50, with Vice Speaker Kamala Harris breaking the deadlock after an all-night session. “Today, Senate Democrats sided with American families against special interests,” President Joe Biden said in a statement from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. “I ran for President promising to make government work for working families again, and that’s what this bill does — period.” Biden, who has had his share of long nights during his three decades as a senator, went into the Senate locker room during the speakerphone vote to personally thank the staff for their hard work. The president called on the Parliament to approve the bill as soon as possible. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her House “will move quickly to send this bill to the president’s desk.” The votes in Parliament are expected on Friday. “It’s been a long, hard and difficult road, but we’re finally, finally here,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the final votes. “The Senate is making history. I am confident that the Inflation Reduction Act will stand as one of the defining legislative achievements of the 21st century,” he said. Senators engaged in a 24-hour voting marathon that began Saturday and stretched late into Sunday afternoon. Democrats shot down about three dozen Republican amendments intended to torpedo the legislation. Facing unanimous GOP opposition, the 50-50 Democratic unity in the House was held, keeping the party on track for a morale-boosting victory three months before elections when control of Congress is at stake. The bill ran into problems at midday due to objections to the new 15% minimum corporate tax disliked by private equity firms and other industries, forcing last-minute changes. Despite the momentary setback, the “Lower Inflation Act” gives Democrats a campaign-season showcase for action on long-cherished goals. It includes the largest federal climate change effort — nearly $400 billion — caps Medicare drug costs for seniors at $2,000 a year and extends expiring subsidies that help 13 million people pay for health insurance. By raising corporate taxes and reaping savings from the long-sought goal of allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare, the entire package is paid for, with about $300 billion in additional revenue to reduce the deficit. Just more than a tenth of the size of Biden’s original ten-year, $3.5 trillion Build Back Better initiative, the new package abandons earlier proposals for universal preschool, paid family leave and expanded child care assistance . That plan collapsed after conservative Sen. Joe. Manchin, DW.Va., opposed it, saying it was too costly and would fuel inflation. Nonpartisan analysts said the 755-page “Inflation Reduction Act” would have little effect on rising consumer prices. Republicans said the new measure would undermine an economy that policymakers are struggling to keep from falling into recession. They said the bill’s business taxes would hurt job creation and push up prices, making it harder for people to cope with the nation’s worst inflation since the 1980s. “Democrats have already robbed American families once through inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families a second time,” argued Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. In a test imposed on most budget bills like this one, the Senate had to endure an overnight “vote-a-rama” of rapid-fire amendments. Each tested the ability of Democrats to hold together the compromise bill negotiated by Schumer, progressives, Manchin and uncharted centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized the bill’s shortcomings and proposed amendments to further expand the health law’s benefits, but those efforts were defeated. Republicans forced their own votes designed to make Democrats look soft on US-Mexico border security and gas and energy costs, and like bullies for wanting to strengthen IRS tax enforcement. Before the debate began, the bill’s prescription drug price restrictions were watered down by the nonpartisan Senate lawmaker, who said a provision that would impose costly penalties on drugmakers whose price increases for private insurers should be struck down exceed inflation. It was the bill’s main protection for the 180 million people with private health coverage they get through work or buy themselves. Under special procedures that would allow Democrats to pass their bill with a simple majority without the usual margin of 60 votes, its provisions must focus more on budget numbers in dollars and cents than on policy changes. But the thrust of Democrats’ language on drug prices remained. That included allowing Medicare to negotiate what it pays for drugs for its 64 million elderly recipients, penalizing manufacturers for exceeding inflation for pharmaceutical products sold to Medicare, and capping beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year. The bill also caps Medicare patients’ costs for insulin, the expensive diabetes drug, at $35 a month. Democrats wanted to extend the $35 cap to private insurers, but ran afoul of Senate rules. Most Republicans voted to remove it from the package, although in a sign of the political power of health care costs, seven GOP senators joined Democrats in trying to preserve it. The final cost of the measure was being recalculated to reflect late changes, but overall it would raise more than $700 billion over a decade. The money would come from a 15% minimum tax on a handful of companies with annual profits of more than $1 billion, a 1% tax on companies that buy back their own stock, boosted tax collections and government savings from lower drug costs. Sinema forced Democrats to abandon a plan to prevent wealthy hedge fund managers from paying less than individual income tax rates on their profits. He also joined with other Western senators to win $4 billion to fight the region’s drought. Several Democratic senators have joined the GOP-led effort to exclude some companies from the new minimum corporate tax. The package honors Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 a year. On the energy and environment side, the compromise was most apparent between progressives and Manchin, a champion of fossil fuels and his state’s coal industry. Clean energy will be promoted with tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles and the construction of solar panels and wind turbines. There would be home energy rebates, funds to build factories that make clean energy technology, and money to promote climate-friendly agricultural practices and reduce pollution in minority communities. Manchin won billions to help power plants reduce carbon emissions and language requiring more state auctions for oil drilling in federal waters. Party leaders have also promised to push separate legislation this fall to speed up permits for energy projects, which Manchin wants to include a nearly completed natural gas pipeline in his state. However, environmental groups hailed the passage as a milestone. “Tremendous progress,” Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.
Associated Press writers Chris Megerian in Rehoboth, Del., and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.
