Inflation Reduction Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on the IRA anniversary--when we passed the Inflation Reduction Act last year, I said here on the floor that it would endure as one of the defining legislative feats of the 21st century. Just 1 year later, the IRA is paying huge dividends for the American people, for our economy, and for our environment.

The Republicans claimed the IRA would make inflation worse. One of our Republican colleagues claimed the IRA would cut jobs and fuel inflation. But since we passed the IRA, inflation has gone not up but down. We are lowering costs day by day for the American people with the passage of this legislation. Inflation is now half of what it was a few years ago.

Across the board, costs are coming down for the American family. For the first time ever, we made it possible for Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, helping Americans save at the pharmacy. Because of the IRA, vaccines are free for Medicare beneficiaries, and a cap on out-of-pocket drug spending--no senior will have to pay more than $2,000 a year for drugs--is coming very soon.

What a relief for people, lowering costs on one of the things that bothered them the most--the high cost of prescription drugs. That is what we Democrats are doing, while over there in the House, the Republicans are just racing to the bottom.

We also capped the price of insulin for seniors on Medicare to $35 a month, spurring major companies like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to follow suit. Millions of people who buy their health insurance on the ACA exchanges are now saving hundreds--hundreds--of dollars each month.

Indeed, we are lowering costs. That is what we promised to do.

On top of these savings, I also said the Inflation Reduction Act would kick-start the era of affordable clean energy and create countless good-paying, green jobs. The Inflation Reduction Act has done just that too.

From the new wind turbine facilities in New York to the solar facilities in Arizona, the IRA is paving the way for America to lead in clean energy manufacturing. Eighty new clean energy manufacturing facilities have been announced across the country, employing thousands and thousands of people--and not just in junky, low-wage jobs but in good, high-pay, high-skill jobs, with training to boot. Again, these new facilities mean even more good-paying jobs for years to come in construction, manufacturing, clean energy, and so much more.

As the new jobs are being created, wage growth continues to go up. It is now exceeding inflation. So the amount brought home in your paycheck has gone up more than the cost of goods has gone up. That is a new thing. It only happened in the last few years.

The policies that we have passed here in the Senate--that Democrats have passed here in the Senate, frankly--are making a huge difference. Of course, we are only getting started. As we continue implementing the IRA, the American people will see more evidence of the Democratic agenda working for them.

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