Senate Democrats pass sweeping climate and health bill


The Senate on Sunday passed a $430 billion bill that funds investments to fight climate change, lowers the cost of prescription drugs, and raises some corporate taxes.
Called the Inflation Reduction Act, the legislation also puts billions of dollars toward deficit reduction, NBC News reports. The 51-50 vote was along party lines, with every Republican senator voting against it and Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote. The measure will now go to the House, where a vote is expected on Friday.
"After more than a year of hard work, the Senate is making history," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday. "I am confident that the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining legislative feats of the 21st century."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The legislation sets aside more than $300 billion to combat climate change and boost clean energy, including incentives for ranchers and farmers to curb their methane emissions and an extension of the electric vehicle tax credit. It also allows Medicare, for the first time ever, to negotiate prices with drug companies, and caps the price of insulin for people 65 and older on Medicare. To raise revenue, the bill imposes a new 15 percent minimum tax on large corporations, with accelerated depreciation exempted, and a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks.
"I don't know if there's been any Congress and president that has been as productive as we've seen in this Congress," Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told NBC News. "This president keeps putting up historic bills that are meeting the urgencies of the American public."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
What's going on with the Beckhams?
In the Spotlight From wedding tantrums to birthday snubs, rumours of a family rift are becoming harder to hide
-
Interest rate cut: the winners and losers
The Explainer The Bank of England's rate cut is not good news for everyone
-
Quiz of The Week: 3 – 9 May
Have you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
India strikes Pakistan as tensions mount in Kashmir
speed read Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called it an 'act of war'
-
Israel approves plan to take over Gaza indefinitely
speed read Benjamin Netanyahu says the country is 'on the eve of a forceful entry'
-
Putin talks nukes as Kyiv slated for US air defenses
speed read 'I hope they will not be required,' Putin said of nuclear weapons on Russian state TV
-
US, Ukraine sign joint minerals deal
speed read The Trump administration signed a deal with Ukraine giving the US access to its mineral wealth
-
What happens if tensions between India and Pakistan boil over?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION As the two nuclear-armed neighbors rattle their sabers in the wake of a terrorist attack on the contested Kashmir region, experts worry that the worst might be yet to come
-
Israel launches air strike on Beirut suburbs
Speed Read The attack targeting Hezbollah was Israel's third on the Lebanese capital since November's ceasefire
-
Dozens dead in Kashmir as terrorists target tourists
Speed Read Visitors were taking pictures and riding ponies in a popular mountain town when assailants open fired, killing at least 26
-
Israel blames 'failures' for killing of medics
speed read 14 Gaza medics and 1 U.N. employee were killed by IDF special forces