Assistant Speaker Clark Celebrates Passage of Legislation To Tackle Climate Crisis & Build Stronger, Green Economy

In full transparency, the following is a press release from Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark’s office to SOURCE media. Clark is the congresswoman for this area. She is a Democrat. (screenshot of Congresswoman speaking)

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Assistant Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Katherine Clark (MA-5) celebrated the House passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The legislation lowers health care and energy costs for families by capping the out-of-pocket cost of prescription drugs through Medicare, reducing health insurance premiums, and creating new clean energy tax credits and incentives.

The Inflation Reduction Act is the largest investment in fighting climate change in Congressional history. It is fully paid for by ensuring that the very wealthiest Americans and corporations pay their fair share in taxes. The legislation will also reduce the deficit by more than $300 billion.

“Democrats are lowering costs for everyday Americans while rebuilding a stronger, greener economy,” said Assistant Speaker Clark. “Seniors won’t have to choose between putting food on the table and paying for lifesaving prescriptions. More families will be able to afford health care, and fewer Americans will be uninsured. Homes and cars will be cheaper and greener. This legislation is a game changer for working families and seniors, our planet, and our future, and I am thrilled that it’s on its way to President Biden’s desk.”

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The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will:

Expand Accessibility and Affordability of Health Care

• Extends health insurance premium tax credits, saving 13 million Americans an average of $800 a year and preventing 3 million people from becoming uninsured.
• Empowers Medicare to negotiate directly for the price of prescription drugs in 2023 for America’s 64 million enrollees. 
• Reduces the cost of insulin to $35/month for Medicare patients.
• Caps Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 per year, with the option to break that amount into affordable monthly payments.
• Institutes a new “inflation rebate” under Medicare so drug companies can’t take arbitrary and unjustified price increases on products that are not changing year to year. It also requires drug companies to rebate the difference to Medicare if they raise prices higher than inflation.
• Puts more financial responsibility on insurance and drug companies to keep prices down by putting them on the hook for higher drug prices and spending.
• Stabilizes Part D premiums for seniors in Medicare by holding annual premium growth to existing levels so that insurers and manufacturers can’t pass their new financial responsibilities on to seniors. 
• Provides free vaccines for seniors on Medicare.
• Closes the “rogue Secretary” loophole that would have allowed a bad actor Republican Secretary to refuse to negotiate or negotiate fewer than the maximum number of drugs.
• Expands premium and co-pay assistance on prescription drugs for low-income individuals.

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Tackle the Climate Crisis

• Puts the U.S. on a path to roughly 40% carbon emissions reduction by 2030.
• Lowers energy costs for Americans:
  • $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 and run on clean energy, making heat pumps, rooftop solar, electric HVAC and water heaters more affordable
  • $4,000 consumer tax credit for lower and middle income individuals to buy used clean vehicles, and up to $7,500 tax credit to buy new clean vehicles
  • $1 billion grant program to make affordable housing more energy efficient
• Provides historic investments in American clean energy manufacturing:
  • $30 billion investment in production tax credits to accelerate U.S. manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and critical minerals processing
  • $10 billion investment tax credit to build clean technology manufacturing facilities, like facilities that make electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels
  • $500 million for the Defense Production Act for heat pumps and critical minerals processing
  • $2 billion in grants to retool existing auto manufacturing facilities to manufacture clean vehicles, ensuring that auto manufacturing jobs stay in the communities that depend on them.

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• Invests in decarbonizing all sectors of the economy through targeted federal support of innovative climate solutions.
• Focuses investments into disadvantaged communities to ensure that communities that are too often left behind will share in the benefits of the transition to a clean economy.
• Supports resilient rural communities:
  • $20 billion for farmers and forestland owners to be part of growing climate solutions, and by ensuring rural communities are able to better adapt to a rapidly changing climate.
  • $14 billion to lower costs for families and support good-paying clean energy jobs in rural communities, including support for rural electric cooperatives in the transition to cleaner energy.
•  $5 billion to protect communities from wildfires while combating the climate crisis and supporting the workforce through climate-smart forestry.

Lower the Deficit

• Imposes a 15% Corporate Minimum Tax to ensure corporations simply pay their fair share of taxes.
• Imposes a 1% excise tax on the repurchase of stock by publicly-traded companies.
• Invests in re-building the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to go after giant corporations and the very wealthiest cheating on their taxes.
• Reduces the deficit by more than $300 billion through revenue-raising provisions.
• Imposes no new taxes on small businesses or families making less than $400,000.

Footage of Assistant Speaker Clark speaking on the House floor about the Inflation Reduction Act today can be found HERE.

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