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Late Saturday night and into Sunday morning, Senators voted on amendments to Democrats’ major spending bill that tackles health care, climate and taxes.
The legislation is being passed through the budget reconciliation process, which means all 50 Democrats and one tie-breaker vote from Vice President Harris are needed, since none of the 50 Republican senators will vote for the bill. It also restricts the measures in the bill to those that directly change federal spending and revenue.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Saturday that despite a few cuts from the Senate parliamentarian, the bill overall is still a legislative win for Democrats.
Democrats have argued it will tackle voters’ main economic concern, naming it the Inflation Reducation Act. Republicans argue the new spending will aggravate inflation. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says, though, the bill has a “negligible” effect on inflation in 2022 and into 2023.
Overall, the bill is a very scaled-down solution to what many Democrats, including President Biden, had asked for originally.
“This bill is far from perfect. It’s a compromise. But it’s often how progress is made,” Biden said at the White House last month. “My message to Congress is this: This is the strongest bill you can pass.”
After passage in the Senate, the House plans to take up the bill at the end of the week and then send it to President Biden for his signature.
Here’s a look at some of what did get included in the Democrats’ bill, and what didn’t.
You can see the entire 755-page bill here.Tackling climate change
More than $300 billion would be invested in energy and climate reform, the largest federal clean energy investment in U.S. history.
The bill has support from many environmental and climate activists but is short of the $555 billion that Democrats had originally called for.
