Denver – Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released the following statement after President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law:
“This is a historic day for our country. The Inflation Reduction Act replaces the failed, trickle-down economics of the past 40 years with responsible policies to lower drug costs, fight climate change, promote energy independence, and create a fairer tax code by closing loopholes for billion dollar corporations. And unlike former President Trump’s tax giveaways for the wealthiest Americans, this bill is not only paid for — it reduces the deficit by $300 billion. With this bill, we’re finally starting to build an economy that grows for everybody — not just those at the very top. And while our work isn’t done, we’re off to a great start.
“Today, special interests lost, and the American people won.”
BACKGROUND:
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) makes 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 the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure, 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 to boost domestic clean energy manufacturing for wind, solar, and batteries for electric vehicles and stationary energy storage, based on Bennet’s proposals. In addition, it includes 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. Bennet secured $4 billion to address drought in the West and in the Colorado River Basin in the IRA. The IRA will also 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 month, Bennet spoke on the Senate floor in support of the Inflation Reduction Act.