Build Back Better Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition of what I call the Inflation ``Production'' Act.

There are obvious problems of increasing taxes in a recession, expanding Obamacare, innovation killing price controls on drugs, and its attacks on American energy.

Hard working families, farmers, and small business owners in central Arkansas are going to bear the brunt of citizens being audited at the highest rates due to more than doubling the size of the IRS and it's increase in funding.

What do we think the IRS is going to do with this increase in staff and $45 billion in new enforcement funding?

No agency needs six times its current funding to answer phone calls and improve customer service.

I have seen claims that as long as you don't cheat on your taxes then you have nothing to worry about.

Clearly, they have never faced the harassment and excruciating process of an IRS audit.

We must defeat this legislation.

Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I ran for Congress to help people in Chicago, in Illinois, and across the country. The Inflation Reduction Act represents a transformative investment in families, workers, businesses, and the planet that will improve health and well-being, advance economic and environmental justice, meaningfully address climate change, and grow our economy while asking the wealthiest and most secure to pay their fair share.

As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I am deeply honored to have played an active role in advancing these policies that improve the health of Americans, workers, our economy, and the environment. The pandemic has harmed tens of millions of Americans--disproportionately hurting African Americans and other communities of color, women, seniors, and children. This bill meets immediate needs for lower costs for health care, medications, and energy as well as long-term needs for good-paying jobs, a healthy environment, a fairer tax system, and deficit and inflation reduction.

As a former health care professional, I am proud to vote for this bill that would achieve several important goals in healthcare. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) would have the power to negotiate certain high-cost prescription drugs for seniors and people with disabilities that are Medicare beneficiaries. It would enhance premium tax credits, subsidies for people who buy insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, for three additional years. This is to extend the enacted legislative measure by Congress and President Biden last year to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Medicare recipients would not have to pay more than $35 per month of their out- of-pocket costs for insulin. Drug companies will have to pay a rebate to Medicare if their prices increase faster than inflation, and place caps on Medicare Part D out-of-pocket drug purchases at $2,000 yearly. There will be no copayments for vaccines in Medicare Part D, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Each of these health provisions directly helps people spend less of their money on healthcare costs and slows the price increases of medicines, giving Chicagoans, Illinoisans, and Americans extra money to meet their needs and improve their well-being.

As the representative of communities harmed by high energy costs and pollution, I am proud to vote for this bill that will save the average American household hundreds in energy bills, reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030, generate enormous public health benefits via reduced air pollution, and grow our clean energy economy by spurring 9 million jobs.

I am pleased that this legislation includes my bill, the Low-Income Housing Renewable Energy Credit Act (LIHREC) of 2021, to provide a larger tax credit for those businesses investing in new wind and solar projects in low-to-moderate income (LMI) communities. I am confident that this provision will help the tax code advance environmental and economic justice by bringing the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy to low-income individuals and communities, spreading the benefits of clean and affordable energy to households like those that I represent that have far too often been neglected by clean energy providers. Current renewable tax benefits typically remain out of reach for low-income communities, which also experience greater power- generated pollution. The new provision would provide an enhanced Investment Tax Credit to solar projects benefiting low-income residents, including multifamily housing, community solar homes, and individual low-income residential homeowners.

Some of the leading companies in this sector have raised the need for additional guidance related to the use of the credit for projects benefiting low-income homeowners to ensure that the program within the reconciliation bill will provide environmental justice allocations in a manner that provide businesses sufficient certainty to make the necessary investments in LMI communities. The central concern is clarity that businesses offering rooftop solar to LMI homeowners will receive the credit allocation prior to engaging with potential customers so that businesses can honestly convey the expected energy costs. Critical to the success of this new program will be participation by those businesses providing residential rooftop solar.

My intent in drafting the LIHREC Act, the basis for the provision included in the reconciliation bill, was to ensure that residential rooftop solar businesses would be in a position to leap into service of LMI communities when the bill is signed into law. As such, the legislation is designed to provide maximum flexibility to Treasury in designing the application and allocation process for the bonus 10 percent credit. Specifically, the legislation is intended to allow residential rooftop providers to identify potential customers in qualifying census tracts and submit applications to serve these customers up-front, before these businesses have engaged these potential customers. My understanding is that these businesses will need to know if they have received a credit allocation before they can offer the benefits of rooftop solar to new customers in LMI areas to provide accurate pricing information to low-income customers. Without certainty in the availability of the credit allocation, low-income homeowners are at risk of entering deals with shifting costs or of not having the opportunities at all given the uncertainty for businesses. So today, I make clear my understanding that the negotiated text gives Treasury the necessary flexibility to award allocations up-front so that businesses can make new investments in LMI communities knowing that they will be in a position to claim the bonus credit.

I also received questions from an insurance company in Illinois about whether companies that only prepare what is known as statutory accounting statements would be required to produce GAAP statements or a hybrid of GAAP. It is my understanding that the legislation provides that applicable financial statements required to be filed with state insurance regulators will be recognized as applicable financial statements for purposes of the new book minimum tax. State insurance regulators already are subject to a robust regulatory financial statement requirement to ensure the continued protection of insurance consumers. After enactment, I will work to convey this understanding to the executive branch.

I am honored to vote for this once-in-a-generation legislation. I came to Congress to make this type of momentous change. I urge my colleagues to pass it.

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