Washington, D.C. – Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released the following statement after the U.S. Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act:
“The Inflation Reduction Act is a victory for the American people over special interests and the status quo. It will lower costs for hardworking Colorado families at the pharmacy, at the gas pump, and on their monthly energy bills and insurance premiums. On top of that, it will start to build a fairer tax code, put us on the path to energy independence, and help us lead the fight against climate change.
“While Senate Republicans tried to sink this bill with cynical amendments, we overcame their obstruction to pass this landmark legislation to lower costs.
“Today, I’m more hopeful than ever that we can leave Colorado and our country better for the next generation and begin to build an economy that grows for everyone.”
BACKGROUND:
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will make the largest investment to confront climate change in history, reduce our deficit, lower costs and help fight inflation for hard-working Coloradans. The IRA will help lower health care and prescription drug costs for Coloradans by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and extending the American Rescue Plan health insurance premium support for three years for over 100,000 Coloradans. Bennet proposed these reforms in his Medicare-X public option bill. The bill will also cap prescription drug costs for seniors at $2,000 per year and prevent pharmaceutical companies from egregiously hiking drug prices for seniors.
As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, Bennet has championed the long-term extension and expansion of the clean energy tax credits in the IRA, including ensuring that entities like rural electric cooperatives, public power, and Tribes have full access to those credits. The IRA also includes incentives for domestic clean energy manufacturing for wind, solar, and batteries for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage, based on Bennet’s proposals, as well as an array of his priorities to support rural communities in the transition to clean energy, cut methane emissions, and invest in innovative technologies like carbon capture. Bennet also helped write the IRA’s 15% Corporate Minimum Tax on the country’s 200 richest corporations, which will raise nearly half of the revenue to pay for the bill.
As the Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry and Natural Resources and Chair of the Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure, Bennet has pushed to make major investments in our forests and agricultural economy to help confront climate change. On Friday, Bennet secured $4 billion to address drought in the West and in the Colorado River Basin. The IRA will invest more than $20 billion in working lands conservation measures and $5 billion to restore the health of our forests to prevent wildfires, modeled after his Outdoor Restoration Partnership Act. At Bennet’s urging, the bipartisan infrastructure law also made a major investment in our forests – for a combined historic $10 billion investment in our forests.
Earlier this week, Bennet spoke on the Senate floor in support of the Inflation Reduction Act.