Build Back Better Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, it is November 18, 2021. Those of us who serve in the Congress of the United States on this date will be able to tell our children and our children's children that we were there when the United States Congress passed one of the most transformational bills in the history of the Congress for the people.

Tonight, House Democrats will vote on the Build Back Better Act as will House Republicans, legislation to transform our country by making opportunities available and equitable for all Americans.

Its name, of course, refers to the broad recognition that too many Americans are just barely getting by in our economy, and we simply cannot go back to the way things were before the pandemic.

We have to ensure our people can access the tools and resources they need, not just to survive, but to succeed.

This bill does so by making investments in four key areas.

First, it will invest in childcare, universal pre-K, and home care so that more Americans can get back to the workforce and grow our economy.

Secondly, it further expands the Affordable Care Act coverage, reduces out-of-pocket costs, caps insulin at $35 for everyone, and finally gives Medicare the tools and authority to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors just as we do for veterans.

Thirdly, it will bring down the everyday costs for housing and higher education that make it harder for Americans to secure a place in our middle class.

And fourth, the Build Back Better Act makes the largest commitment toward addressing the climate crisis ever considered by any Nation in history.

Mr. Speaker, in all four of these critical areas, the Build Back Better Act will make transformational investments that will help more Americans access opportunities and achieve greater economic security.

This bill is truly for the people, not just those who have much, but those who have too little.

Many Americans are looking at the investments this bill would make in America's workers and families and asking: How are we going to afford it?

My friends on the other side of the aisle have raised that and I am sure will raise it again.

First and foremost, Mr. Speaker, this bill does not raise taxes from households or small businesses earning less than $400,000 a year.

In fact, the Build Back Better Act would provide a tax cut--contrary to the rhetoric I have heard on the other side of the aisle--to 80 percent of American households next year.

Not only that, but it will raise revenue, according to the Treasury Department and outside analyses.

My Republican friends should be excited that we give a tax cut essentially to 80 percent of Americans, not just 1 percent. By most estimates, this bill reduces the deficit. This bill reduces the deficit. It also ensures that all of us will pay our fair share to support our democracy.

The impacts of this historic legislation will be reflected in the greater economic security of millions of families and in the growth and competitiveness of a robust American economy.

President Biden said, in fact, very truthfully, this will be transformational, and it will be measured in the deeper sense of hope that Americans will have when they see their economy working for them instead of holding them back.

I am hopeful that the Senate acts quickly to pass this bill under reconciliation even while Republicans all sit on the sidelines on this historic moment, just as all but 13 of them did when we passed a transformational infrastructure investment bill, which will make America competitive in the 21st century and make businesses in America grow and succeed.

Democrats will not rest until all Americans have the tools to build back better, to access opportunities to get ahead, to achieve real economic security, and to reach for the American Dream that has been this country's promise for generations.

This bill, Mr. Speaker, as I said at the beginning, is for the people, all the people, the little people, the big people, all the people.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to be able to say on November 18, 2021, I voted for that legislation which made America, as John Kennedy said, a great country even greater.

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