Press Releases

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives, with the support of Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01), passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which will lower costs for families, make historic investments in our clean energy future, and decrease the federal deficit.

The bill passed the Senate on Sunday and now heads to the President’s desk to be signed into law. It was a top priority for the DelBene-led New Democrat Coalition and she was actively involved in shaping the legislation over the past year. The legislation includes DelBene’s Clean Hydrogen Production and Investment Tax Credit Act which would spur the development of “green” and “blue” hydrogen and DelBene’s Negate Emissions to Zero (NET Zero) Act, legislation that would substantially increase tax incentives to boost the developing direct air capture industry.

“Today is a historic day for American families, our seniors, and our economy. The Inflation Reduction Act is the culmination of a year of negotiating and the final product we are sending to President Biden will provide benefits that Americans will feel right away while making important investments in our clean energy future,” said DelBene. “To anyone who says that Congress cannot do big or good things anymore, we proved them wrong today, again.”

The Inflation Reduction Act:

• Lowers prescription costs for seniors
• Allows Medicare to negotiate for cheaper prescription drugs.
• Caps seniors’ out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs at $2,000 a year.
• Reduces the cost of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries to $35 per month.
• Provides free recommended vaccines, including for COVID-19 and shingles.
• Keeps health insurance affordable for millions of families
• Extends Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies for an additional 3 years that have saved 13 million people an average of $800 a year on health coverage.
• Makes it more affordable to purchase energy-efficient products and enables the U.S. to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030, the largest federal investment to combat climate change.
• Up to $7,500 credit for purchasing new electric vehicles and up to $4,000 credit for used ones.
• Up to 30% credit to install energy-saving products like heat pumps, battery storage, and solar panels.

This legislation will also:

• Create an estimated 9 million good-paying jobs
• Not raise taxes on families making under $400,000 a year or on small businesses.
• Lower the deficit by over $300 billion.
• Invest in IRS enforcement so the largest corporations and wealthiest individuals pay their fair share. The Treasury Department proactively said these resources will not increase audits on households making under $400,000 a year.

DelBene’s floor speech on this bill can be found here. A fact sheet about the bill can be found here.