Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 5376 - Build Back Better Act

STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY

(House Rules)

The Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act, which will make historic investments in children and families, grow the economy, create millions of good-paying American jobs, enable more Americans to join and remain in the workforce, expand access to health care, set the United States on course to meet its climate goals, reduce costs for families, and strengthen the middle class.

The bill is the most significant investment in children and caregiving in generations. It will cut most families' child care bills by half — or more — and help millions of women who have left the labor force return to work. By expanding preschool to three-and four-year-olds across America, it will deliver the largest expansion of universal and free education since states and communities across the country established public high school 100 years ago. It will cut taxes for more than 35 million families by extending the American Rescue Plan's Child Tax Credit expansion. And the bill expands access to high-quality home care for older Americans and people with disabilities. The bill includes paid family and medical leave, a provision that the President has long supported and included in his original Build Back Better Agenda.

The bill is also the largest effort to combat climate change in American history. The increasing frequency of devastating hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, and other natural disasters underscores the demand to take action to combat climate change and make our communities and infrastructure more resilient. Through grants, tax credits, rebates, private-sector incentives, loans and loan guarantees, and Federal purchasing, the Build Back Better Act will reduce our carbon footprint, prepare communities for extreme weather events, incentivize domestic manufacturing to create high-paying jobs, promote energy efficiency and clean power sources, and propel the United States to be a world leader in critical energy supply chains. It will cut annual greenhouse gas pollution by well over a gigaton by 2030, setting the United States on a path to meet its climate goals.

The bill is the most significant expansion of affordable health coverage in a decade. It will give Medicare the authority to negotiate prescription drug prices, and save Americans up to thousands of dollars per year on particularly costly prescription drugs, which one in four Americans struggle to afford. It will ensure health care is affordable for nine million Americans by extending the American Rescue Plan's expanded Premium Tax Credit for Marketplace coverage, deliver health care coverage to up to four million uninsured people in states that have locked them out of Medicaid, and increase access to affordable hearing coverage by expanding Medicare.

Immigrants are critical not only to who we are as a nation, but also to our economic strength and vitality. The bill provides work permits for qualifying undocumented individuals who have lived in our country for decades. This bill would provide relief to Dreamers, TPS recipients, immigrant farmworkers, and essential workers, among others. The bill also includes important reforms to our legal immigration system, which will help reduce visa processing backlogs.

Finally, the bill is the most significant effort to bring down costs and strengthen the middle class in generations. It makes the single largest and most comprehensive investment in affordable housing in history, expands access to affordable, high-quality education and training beyond high school, and cuts taxes for 17 million low-wage workers by extending the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit. This legislation also advances equity through investments in maternal health, community violence interventions, and child nutrition, in addition to better preparing the nation for future pandemics and supply chain disruptions.

The Build Back Better Act is fully paid for and will not increase the deficit; in fact, it reduces the deficit. It does so by making sure that large, profitable corporations can't zero out their tax bills, no longer rewarding corporations that shift jobs and profits overseas, requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, and stopping rich Americans from cheating on their tax bills. Under this historic agreement, nobody earning less than $400,000 per year will pay a penny more in taxes. The bill will reduce costs and fuel economic growth that will put more money in the hands of the vast majority of American workers while contributing to deficit reduction and fiscal responsibility.

The Administration urges Congress to pass the Build Back Better Act. We look forward to working with Congress throughout the legislative process and ensuring that we answer the demands of the American people at this critical moment in history.