House to vote Friday to pass Democrats’ sweeping health care and climate bill
Once the Democratic-controlled House approves the bill, it would next go to Biden to be signed into law.
Final passage of the bill would give Democrats a chance to achieve major policy objectives ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, at a critical time when the party is fighting to retain control of its narrow majorities in Congress.
It would raise over $700 billion in government revenue over 10 years and spend over $430 billion to reduce carbon emissions and extend subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and use the rest of the new revenue to reduce the deficit.
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.
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