Thompson Attends White House Ceremony to Celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act

“The Inflation Reduction Act is a transformative law that is going to set our nation on the road to a bright future with historic climate action and lower costs for families,” said Thompson. “I am honored to attend the ceremony at the White House to celebrate this law, which includes my GREEN Act, the foundation of the climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act which represents the largest climate action in the history of our nation. This law will lower costs for families by allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drugs, lower energy bills by speeding the transition away from expensive and dirty fossil fuels, and ensuring lower health care premiums. This is a historic moment, and this law is going to provide a secure future for future generations.”

The Inflation Reduction Act addresses several key issues that American families face today, including health care costs, inflation, and climate change. Congressman Thompson, Chair of the Select Revenues Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, was responsible for a majority of the climate provisions in the law — $250 billion worth —which are based on his GREEN Act. These investments include:

• Clean Power: 10+ years of tax credits for renewable technologies like solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower, including credits targeted to low-income communities, affordable housing, and community solar
• Grid Resiliency: New tax credits for batteries and other energy storage technologies to enable renewable technologies and make our grids more resilient to disasters and blackouts
• Energy Efficiency: 10 years of tax credits for energy efficiency, from helping homeowners afford electric and efficient heating and cooling equipment, to incentivizing energy efficient homes and commercial buildings
• Clean Fuels: Credits to promote low-carbon fuels such as biodiesel and to tackle one of the hardest to decarbonize sectors, aviation, through a new credit for sustainable aviation fuel
• Clean Vehicles: 10 years of tax credits for electric, fuel-cell, and hybrid vehicles, including credits to make used vehicles more affordable for low- and moderate-income individuals and to clean up the air by getting more clean delivery vans, trucks, and buses on the road
• Clean Manufacturing and Industry: Over $35 billion in investments in clean manufacturing to ensure that our energy transition is built on strong domestic supply chains and investments to help industrial facilities be cleaner, including by investing in clean hydrogen
• Good Jobs: Labor standards throughout key provisions to ensure that our clean energy future is built with good-paying jobs
• Polluters Pay: Building on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, reinstates the Superfund tax on oil producers and importers in order to pay for environmental cleanup, rather than putting the onus on overburdened communities

This bill will save the average American household hundreds in energy bills and other costs, will spur 9 million jobs by investing in clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean manufacturing, and will generate enormous public health benefits by preventing up to 3,900 premature deaths and 100,000 asthma attacks annually from air pollution.

The Inflation Reduction Act is historic legislation that will also lower families’ health care costs. The bill:

• Lowers the cost of health care: reduces the cost of health care for millions by extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for three more years, locking in lower health care premiums that save 13 million people an average of $800 a year.
• Ends the ban on Medicare negotiating prescription drug prices: allows Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, prevents excessive price hikes, and caps out-of-pocket costs to $2,000.
• Lowers the deficit and reduces inflation: makes a down payment on deficit reduction of approximately $300 billion to fight inflation. 

According to 126 leading economists—including seven Nobel Prize winners, three former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers, two former Treasury Secretaries—the Inflation Reduction Act “will fight inflation and lower costs for American families while setting the stage for strong, stable, and broadly-shared long-term economic growth.”

This historic legislation is fully paid for:

• Makes biggest corporations and ultra-wealthy pay their fair share: is paid for by strengthening IRS enforcement against wealthy tax cheats, closing tax loopholes exploited by the wealthiest few, and implementing a 15 percent corporate minimum tax – which applies only to the 150 corporations earning over $1 billion in profits that pay less than 15% in taxes.
• NO new taxes on families making $400,000 or less and NO new taxes on small businesses: Not one middle class person filling out their taxes will find that they are facing higher taxes or higher tax rates. 

The law passed the Senate on August 7, 2022 by a vote of 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tiebreaking vote.