ASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law a major Democratic spending bill that seeks to fight climate change, raise taxes on corporations and expand health care coverage.
The bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, is a major legislative achievement for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. It passed both the House and Senate last week with the support of every Democrat and no Republicans.
“With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost,” Biden said in remarks from the White House. “We didn’t tear down, we built up. We didn’t look back, we looked forward. And today offers further proof that the soul of America is vibrant.”
The president signed the measure after returning to Washington from his vacation in South Carolina, where he had monitored the House's passage of the legislation Friday. He now heads to Wilmington, Delaware, for the rest of his vacation.
The legislation will raise about $700 billion through corporate tax increases and prescription drug savings, and it will spend about $400 billion on clean energy and health care provisions. The package falls far short of what most Democrats had wanted, however, with safety net items stripped out by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and a slew of tax increases blocked by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.
The House passed the bill in a 220-207 vote, along party lines, with all Republicans opposing it. Earlier in the week, the Senate passed the measure in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.
Biden plans to lean on members of his Cabinet to tout the bill's benefits for Americans as part of what White House officials described as a "coordinated August recess travel blitz."
Nine members of the Cabinet are already set to hold 18 events across the country, including Tuesday, with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan planning to discuss the legislation at a conference in Oklahoma City.
The bill features a series of provisions aimed at helping consumers, including tax credits for clean energy household products and electric vehicles and savings on prescription drugs and health insurance premiums.