The climate, tax and health care bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, passed 51 to 50, with the vote split along party lines and Vice President Kamala Harris giving the nod. decisive vote in an evenly divided Senate. The bill still needs to pass the House of Representatives and be signed by the president before becoming law, but its Senate passage marks the biggest in a string of recent victories for Biden as he aims to defend slim majorities in both parliaments in November. . Earlier this summer, lawmakers passed bills providing new subsidies for US chip manufacturing and agreed to bipartisan gun control legislation after deadly shootings in Texas and New York. The Inflation Reduction Act includes some of the most important climate legislation enacted in the US, with $369 billion dedicated to climate and clean energy programs. It also includes new measures to allow the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, a provision to impose a 15 percent minimum tax on large corporations and a new 1 percent tax on share buybacks. But Kyrsten Sinema, the centrist senator from Arizona, and six other Democrats joined Republicans in voting for a last-minute amendment that would have created a private equity carve-out from the proposed minimum corporate tax. Business groups and Republicans have strongly opposed the 15 percent minimum tax, arguing it would stifle investment and hurt U.S. exporters. Although most Republican efforts to amend the bill during the long legislative session failed, GOP lawmakers on Sunday morning successfully removed the $35 price cap for insulin from the package. The cap will still apply to Medicare patients. In a statement, Biden said the bill would “put government back to work for working families” by reducing the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance and everyday energy costs while reducing the deficit. “It required a lot of compromise,” Biden said. “Doing important things almost always does.” Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the Senate, hailed the bill as “one of the defining legislative achievements of the 21st century.” “Our bill reduces inflation, lowers costs, creates millions of good-paying jobs and is the boldest climate package in US history,” Schumer said, speaking on the Senate floor. “This bill will usher in the era of affordable clean energy in America. It’s a game changer. It’s a turning point. And it’s been a long time.” Climate advocates hailed the passage of the historic bill. “The Senate just made climate history,” said Manish Bapna, executive director of the National Resources Defense Council. “This is the most important action the US has ever taken to fight climate change.” “This bill is not perfect, but from a climate pollution perspective, the positives far outweigh the negatives – by a factor of 10,” Bapna said. A separate analysis by the Rhodium Group, a clean energy consultancy, estimated that the IRA could put the US on track to reduce emissions by 31-44 percent compared to 2005 levels by 2030, compared to a 24-35 percent reduction without the legislation. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, said her chamber “will move quickly” to send the bill to the president’s desk. The Senate’s passage of the final bill follows weeks of dramatic intra-party negotiations among Democrats, including a stunning reversal by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin. Manchin had refused to support previous versions of the package on the grounds that it would fuel inflation, reducing Democrats’ chances of passing the bill in a closely divided chamber. But Manchin and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer negotiated a compromise bill late last month before winning Cinema’s endorsement last week. She threw her support behind the bill after Democrats agreed to remove a provision that changes the preferential treatment of private equity and hedge fund earnings, known as “carried interest.”
