Inflation Reduction Act Lowering kitchen-table costs, combatting the Climate Crisis, reducing the deficit, and creating millions of good-paying jobs for Americans.

Congress has passed, and President Biden has signed into law, the Inflation Reduction Act - transformative legislation to lower kitchen-table costs, combat the Climate Crisis, reduce the federal deficit, and create millions of good-paying jobs for hard-working Americans all without raising taxes a single penny on middle-class Americans.

This historic legislation includes a number of provisions based on legislation I authored to increase investments in the Advanced Vehicles Technology Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program and the Domestic Manufacturing Conversion Grant Program to speed the transition and increase the production of American-made electric vehicles, as well as establishes the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, modeled after Michigan's green bank, to provide financing for carbon emission reduction projects nationwide.

Health Care

Empowering Medicare to Negotiate Drug Prices: For the first time, empowers Medicare to negotiate prices for the highest cost single-source drugs in Medicare, a policy that Democrats have been trying to enact for years. The provisions save more than $100 billion over 10 years. It allows Medicare to negotiate lower prices for about 100 drugs over the next decade: 10 high-cost drugs beginning in 2026, 15 additional drugs in both 2027 and 2028, and 20 more in 2029 and thereafter. The Secretary must negotiate a price that is no more than the 75 percent of the non-federal Average Manufacturer Price, a price that is used by the Department of Defense and others.
An Inflation Rebate for Seniors on Medicare: Over the past 20 years, price increases for brand-name drugs in Medicare Part D have risen at more than twice the rate of inflation. Under this bill, if drug companies raise prices in Medicare faster than the rate of inflation, they must pay rebates back to Medicare for the difference, beginning in October 2022. Senate Republicans forced the removal of a provision that applied inflation rebates to drug sales to families with private health insurance.
New $2,000 Out-Of-Pocket Cap for Part D Drugs for Seniors on Medicare: Caps Part D out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year for seniors and individuals with disabilities on Medicare, starting in 2025.
Caps Insulin Costs at $35 A Month for Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities on Medicare: Caps Medicare beneficiaries’ insulin costs at $35 a month. Republicans voted against capping insulin out-of-pockets costs for Americans with private health insurance keeping this vital protection out of the bill.
Lowers Premiums in ACA Marketplaces for 13 Million Americans: Extends enhanced ACA subsidies for three years, through 2025. Without these provisions, these enhanced ACA subsidies would expire in January, causing increases in the premiums Americans would pay who are in the ACA marketplace and leading roughly 3 million Americans to lose their health coverage.

Energy Security and Climate Crisis Investments

Lowering Consumer Energy Costs

Consumer Home Energy Rebate Programs: Provides $9 billion in consumer home energy rebate programs, focused on low-income consumers, to electrify home appliances and for energy efficient retrofits.
10 Years of Consumer Tax Credits to Make Homes Energy Efficient: Provides 10 years of consumer tax credits to make homes energy efficient and run on clean energy, making heat pumps, rooftop solar, electric HVAC, and water heaters more affordable.
Consumer Tax Credits to Buy Used or New Clean Vehicles: Provides a $4,000 consumer tax credit for lower/middle income individuals to buy used clean vehicles, and up to $7,000 tax credit to buy new clean vehicles.
$1 Billion Grant Program to Make Housing More Energy Efficient: $1 billion grant program to make affordable housing more energy efficient.
Methane Emissions Reduction Program: Leaked or intentionally wasted natural gas never makes its way to customers, but they are nevertheless stuck with the bill. The Methane Emission Reduction Program will ensure consumers no longer pay for wasted energy.

American Energy Security and Domestic Manufacturing

Overview: The bill will support energy reliability and cleaner energy production coupled with historic investments in American clean energy manufacturing. It includes over $60 billion for clean energy manufacturing in the United States across the full supply chain of clean energy and transportation technologies. These manufacturing incentives will help alleviate inflation and reduce the risk of future price shocks by bringing down the cost of clean energy and clean vehicles and relieving supply chain bottlenecks.
Production and Investment Tax Credits: The bill provides production and investment tax credits to accelerate U.S. manufacturing of electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and critical minerals processing, with an estimated total investment of $40 billion.
Defense Production Act: Provides $500 million in Defense Production Act funding to support heat pump manufacturing and critical minerals processing.
Domestic Manufacturing: Provides $2 billion for grants to retool existing auto manufacturing facilities to manufacture clean vehicles, ensuring that auto manufacturing jobs stay in the communities that depend on them.
Financing for Energy Infrastructure, Next Generation Technologies, and Tribal Energy Projects: Provides loans and loan guarantees for more than $300 billion in clean energy infrastructure, advanced technologies, and transmission projects in across the United States, including in historical energy producing communities and on Tribal lands.
Investing in Our National Laboratories: The bill provides $2 billion for National Labs to accelerate breakthrough energy research.

Decarbonizing the Economy

Overview: The investments in the bill will reduce emissions in every sector of the economy, substantially reducing emissions from electricity production, transportation, industrial manufacturing, buildings, and agriculture:
Tax Credits for Clean Sources of Electricity and Energy Storage: Provides tax credits for clean sources of electricity and energy storage and roughly $30 billion in targeted grant and loan programs for states and electric utilities to accelerate the transition to clean electricity.
Tax Credits and Grants for Clean Fuels and Clean Commercial Vehicles: Provides tax credits and grants for clean fuels and clean commercial vehicles to reduce emissions from all parts of the transportation sector.
Grants and Tax Credits to Reduce Emissions from Industrial Manufacturing: Provides grants and tax credits to reduce emissions from industrial and manufacturing processes, including almost $6 billion for a new Advanced Industrial Facilities Deployment Program to reduce emissions from energy intensive industrial and manufacturing facilities like chemical and cement plants.
Over $9 Billion for Federal Procurement of American-Made Clean Technologies: Provides over $9 billion for Federal procurement of American-made clean technologies to create a stable market for clean products, including $3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service to purchase zero-emissions vehicles.
$27 Billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: Provides $27 billion for nonprofit, state, and local climate finance institutions that support the rapid deployment of low- and zero- emission technologies to help communities reduce and avoid pollution, especially in disadvantaged communities.

Investments in Communities & Environmental Justice

Overview: Building on regular engagement with Environmental Justice leaders from across the country, this package includes over $60 billion in environmental justice priorities to drive investments into disadvantaged communities. Some of the highlight include:
Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants: Provides Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants, funded at $3 billion, that invest in community-led projects in disadvantaged communities and community capacity building centers to address disproportionate environmental and public health harms caused by pollution and climate change.
Neighborhood Access and Equity Grants: Provides Neighborhood Access and Equity Grants, funded at $3 billion, that support neighborhood equity, safety, and affordable transportation access with competitive grants to reconnect communities divided by existing infrastructure barriers, mitigate negative impacts of transportation facilities or construction projects on disadvantaged or underserved communities, and support equitable transportation planning and community engagement activities.
Grants to Reduce Air Pollution at Ports: Provides grants to reduce air pollution at ports, funded at $3 billion, that support the purchase and installation of zero-emission equipment and technology at ports.
$1 Billion for Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles: Provide $1 billion for clean heavy-duty vehicles, like school and transit buses and garbage trucks.
Clean Energy Tax Credits: Many of the clean energy tax credits also include either a bonus or a set-aside structure to drive investments and economic development in disadvantaged communities.

Farmers, Forestland Owners, and Resilient Rural Communities

Overview: The bill will make historic investments to ensure that rural communities are at the forefront of climate solutions. The investments affirm the central role of agricultural producers and forest landowners in our climate solutions by investing in climate-smart agriculture, forest restoration and land conservation. It also makes significant investments in clean energy development in disadvantaged communities:
Climate-Smart Agriculture Practices: Provides more than $20 billion to support climate-smart agriculture practices.
Grants to Support Healthy Forests: Provides $5 billion in grants to support healthy, fire resilient forests, forest conservation, and urban tree planting.
Tax Credits and Grants to Support the Domestic Production of Biofuels: Provides tax credits and grants to support the domestic production of biofuels, and to build the infrastructure needed for sustainable aviation fuel and other biofuels.
Grants to Conserve and Restore Coastal Habitats: Provides $2.6 billion to conserve and restore coastal habitats and protect communities that depend on those habitats.

Tax Provisions

The historic Inflation Reduction Act honors our promise to American families – and is fully paid for:

Makes biggest corporations and ultra-wealthy pay their fair share: is paid for by strengthening IRS enforcement against wealthy tax cheats, closing tax loopholes exploited by the wealthiest few, and implementing a 15 percent corporate minimum tax – which applies only to the 150 corporations making earning over $1 billion in profits that pay less than 15% in taxes.
NO new taxes on families and NO new taxes on small businesses: Not one middle class person filling out their taxes will find that they are facing higher taxes or higher tax rates

Debunking Republican Lies

It's no surprise the party of big corporations and "alternative facts" is working overtime to spread downright lies about this cost-saving, deficit-reducing legislation. Let's take a moment to debunk just a few of their lies.

Lie #1

"The Inflation Reduction Act raises taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000/year."

TRUTH: The Inflation Reduction Act DOES NOT include any new taxes on Americans. It only strengthens enforcement of current laws against ultra-wealthy tax cheats and implements a 15% corporate tax rate for the wealthiest companies.

Lie #2

"The Inflation Reduction Act includes funding to hire 87,000 new IRS enforcement agents to target middle-class Americans."

TRUTH: When Republicans controlled Congress, they stripped the IRS of critical funding which resulted in staffing shortages and made the agency inefficient. The Republican funding cuts also weakened the agency’s ability to hold wealthy tax cheaters accountable and drove an increase in audits on ordinary Americans. Every taxpayer knows filing taxes is overly complicated, the filing system is long overdue for an update, and it’s nearly impossible to get help from the IRS due to staffing shortages.

With funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS will be able to better enforce current laws against the ultra-wealthy, update antiquated tax filing technology, and improve taxpayer support. Additionally, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has directed the IRS not to increase audits on households making under $400,000/year.

Lie #3

"The IRA takes $300 billion in funding from Medicare."

TRUTH: The bill DOES NOT cut benefits for ANY Medicare recipients. What it does do is save Medicare billions of dollars a year by empowering it to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers.

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