House to vote Friday to pass Democrats’ sweeping health care and climate bill

The sweeping bill — named the Inflation Reduction Act — would represent the largest climate investment in US history and make major changes to health policy by giving Medicare the power for the first time to negotiate the prices of certain prescription drugs and extending expiring health care subsidies for three years. The legislation would reduce the deficit, be paid for through new taxes — including a 15% minimum tax on large corporations and a 1% tax on stock buybacks — and boost the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to collect.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to pass the bill through the House in a recent letter to Democratic colleagues.

“On Friday, House Democrats will pass and send to the President the landmark Inflation Reduction Act,” Pelosi wrote. “This life-changing legislation increases the leverage of the people’s interest over the special interest.”

House to act after Senate Democrats passed the bill

In the Senate, the bill passed on a final, party-line vote of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.

Senate Democrats, who control only a narrow 50-seat majority, ultimately stayed unified to pass the legislation. And they used a special, filibuster-proof process known as reconciliation to approve the measure without Republican votes.

Approval of the bill in the chamber marked a major milestone for Senate Democrats, who had long hoped to pass a signature legislative package, but had struggled for months to reach a deal that had the full support of their caucus.

Passage in the Senate came after a lengthy stretch of amendment votes known as a “vote-a-rama” that lasted nearly 16 hours from late Saturday night until Sunday afternoon.