Rep. Neguse Applauds Senate Passage of Inflation Reduction Act

Statement

Today, Congressman Joe Neguse applauded the Senate's passage of the new Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Reconciliation package, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The bill makes historic investments in American clean energy production and manufacturing and will advance several key provisions for Colorado that Rep. Neguse has championed over the past year, including incentivizing research, expanding access to healthcare, bolstering wildfire response, improving wildlife recovery, and combatting the climate crisis.

"The Senate's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is truly historic. The bill will help address rising health care costs, boost American manufacturing, and would be the most significant climate legislation enacted in our country"s history. I'm proud the legislation includes a significant $5 billion investment in our forests and wildfire mitigation and a $2 billion investment in our nation's scientific labs, both of which I've fought to secure. I look forward to supporting this bill in the House of Representatives, and continue to be hopeful for its swift enactment." said Congressman Neguse.

More specifically, the bill invests approximately $300 billion in Deficit Reduction and $369 billion in Energy Security and Climate Change programs over the next ten years, lowers prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, lowers health care premiums for millions of Americans, and makes a historic investment in domestic energy production and manufacturing with the goal of reducing emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 makes significant investments in Neguse-Led Programs, specifically those of importance to the people of Colorado, including:

$5 Billion to protect communities from wildfires while combating the climate crisis and supporting the workforce through climate-smart forestry.
Investing in forest health projects on both public and private lands and equipping firefighters and rural communities to be more resilient to wildfire.
Investing in climate-smart forestry to boost carbon sequestration.
Supporting healthy, fire-resilient forests, forest conservation, and urban tree planting.
$2 Billion for National Labs to accelerate breakthrough energy and climate research.
$250 Million for wildlife recovery and to restore units of the National Wildlife Refuge System and state wildlife management areas.
Restoring habitats to mitigate the impacts of climate-induced weather events and increasing resiliency to benefit wildlife and surrounding communities.
The bill lowers health care costs by:

Caping Medicare patients' out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 per year, with the option to break that amount into affordable monthly payments.
Stabilizing Part D premiums for seniors in Medicare --so insurers and manufacturers can't pass their new financial burdens on to seniors.
Providing free vaccines for seniors. Finally making all vaccines free in Medicare for seniors -- the only population for which vaccines were not already free.
Extending provisions from the American Rescue Plan to keep health coverage accessible and affordable for three additional years -- protecting affordable insurance for approximately 13 million Americans.

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