Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s rules arbitrator, also gave the green light to clean air provisions in the measure, including a cap on tax credits for electric vehicles to those assembled in the U.S., Democrats said. The nonpartisan official’s decisions came as Democrats planned to begin Senate votes on Saturday on their broad package on climate change, energy, health care costs, taxes and even deficit reduction. Party leaders said they believe they now have the unity they will need to move the legislation through the 50-50 Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris tied. MacDonough said provisions that would force pharmacists to pay rebates if their prices rise above inflation for products they sell to private insurers should be eliminated. However, drug companies will have to pay these penalties if their prices for drugs purchased by Medicare rise too much. Eliminating the penalties on pharmacists for raising prices on private insurance companies was a clear setback for Democrats. The decision reduces incentives for drug companies to limit the prices they charge, raising costs for patients. Deleting that language would reduce the $288 billion in savings over 10 years estimated to come from Democrats’ overall drug curbs — perhaps tens of billions of dollars less, analysts said. But other curbs on rising drug costs survived, including allowing Medicare to negotiate costs for the drugs it buys, limiting out-of-pocket costs for seniors and providing free vaccines. The surviving drug provisions let Democrats promote drug language as a boon for consumers at a time when voters are angered by the worst inflation in four decades. “This is an important victory for the American people,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “While there was an unfortunate decision that the inflation discount is more limited in scope, the overall program remains intact and we are one step closer to finally taking on Big Pharma and lowering Rx drug prices for millions of Americans.” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that while he was “disappointed” the penalties for higher drug prices for privately insured consumers were removed, “the legislation nevertheless places a substantial check on Big Pharma’s ability to raise prices”. The lawmaker’s decision came after a 10-day period that saw Democrats resurrect key elements of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda after they had seemingly died. In quick deals with the two most unpredictable Democratic senators — first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginia, then Arizona centrist Kyrsten Sinema — Schumer put together a broad package that, while a fraction of earlier, larger versions that derailed Manchin , would provide the one achievement in this fall’s congressional elections. The congressman signed a bill on excessive emissions of methane, a major greenhouse gas contributor, from oil and gas drilling. It also leaves environmental grants to minority communities and other initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Thomas Carper, D-Del. He approved a provision requiring union-level wages to be paid if energy efficiency projects qualify for tax credits, and another that would limit tax credits for electric vehicles to those cars and trucks assembled in the United States. The overall measure faces unanimous opposition from Republicans. However, assuming Democrats fight off an unrelenting “vote-a-rama” of amendments — many designed by Republicans to derail the measure — they should be able to advance the measure in the Senate. Passage of the house could come when this chamber returns briefly from recess on Friday. “What will vote-a-rama be like. It’s going to be hell,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said Friday of the upcoming GOP amendments. He said that by supporting the Democratic bill, Manchin and Sinema are “encouraging legislation that will make life more difficult for the average person” by driving up energy costs with tax increases and making it harder for companies to hire workers. The bill offers spending and tax incentives to transition to cleaner fuels and support coal with help to reduce carbon emissions. Expiring subsidies that help millions of people afford private insurance premiums will be extended for three years, and there is $4 billion to help Western states fight the drought. There will be a new minimum tax of 15% on some companies that earn more than $1 billion a year, but pay far less than the current 21% corporate tax. There would also be a 1% tax on companies buying back their own shares, which was swapped after Sinema refused to back higher taxes on private equity firm executives and hedge fund managers. The IRS budget will be drawn to boost tax collections. While the final cost of the bill is still being determined, in total it would spend more than $300 billion over 10 years to slow climate change, which analysts say would be the nation’s largest investment in the effort, and billions more in health care. care. It would raise more than $700 billion in taxes and from the government’s drug cost savings, leaving about $300 billion for deficit reduction — a modest bite out of projected multi-trillion-dollar 10-year shortfalls. Democrats are using special procedures that would allow them to pass the measure without having to achieve the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate. It’s the lawmaker’s job to decide whether parts of the legislation should be withdrawn because they violate those rules, which include the requirement that the provisions be aimed primarily at the federal budget and not at enacting new policy.
Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
