President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion bill to bolster the social safety net and fight climate change passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday and headed to the Senate, where divided moderates and liberals still need to reach agreement.
The House passed the measure in a 220-213 vote, which was postponed for hours by an angry overnight opposition speech from the chamber’s top Republican. Elated Democrats gathered on the House floor to cheer the vote with waves of applause, while disgruntled Republicans called for order.
“Now, the Build Back Better Act goes to the United States Senate, where I look forward to it passing as soon as possible so I can sign it into law,” Biden said in a statement following the vote.
Senate Democrats hope to reach agreement by the end of December with centrist Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have raised concerns about the bill’s size and some of its provisions.
Deliberations over an assortment of prickly issues, ranging from tax policy to government-paid family leave benefits, are likely to alter the measure before it can pass the chamber. A defection by any of the Senate’s 48 Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them would sink the bill, which faces united Republican opposition.
“Good luck in the Senate,” Republican Representative Kat Cammack told Democrats, as she delivered a final set of Republican proxy votes against the bill.
An altered Senate version would require the House to vote again before Biden could sign the measure into law.
But with the initial House passage complete and the recent enactment of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, Biden and his Democratic allies have considerable momentum as the measure approaches the finish line.
“At the end of the day we will have a great bill,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters after the vote.
The bill has been scaled down substantially from Democrats’ initial $3.5 trillion plan but would still invest billions to expand education, lower healthcare costs and tackle climate change.
Friday’s House vote came after Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy spoke for a record-setting 8-1/2 hours starting late Thursday. He cataloged a list of Republican grievances – some related to the bill and some not – and at times shouted down Democrats in the House who were openly dismissive.
In a dig at McCarthy, Pelosi later raised chuckles with her own speech supporting the bill, saying: “As a courtesy to my colleagues, I will be brief.”
“If you are a parent, a senior, a child, a worker, if you are an American, this bill’s for you, and it is better,” said Pelosi, whom Biden later called to congratulate.
Only one Democrat, Representative Jared Golden of Maine, voted against the measure, saying its tax provisions were too generous to the wealthy. But Golden vowed in an early morning tweet to “keep pushing to make changes … so that it lives up to its goals.”
The House vote follows the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that the bill would raise federal budget deficits by $367 billion over 10 years, but that additional revenues from improved Internal Revenue Service tax collections could generate a net increase in revenues of $127 billion through 2031.
The White House estimates the IRS changes will generate $400 billion in additional revenue and says the bill overall will reduce deficits by $112 billion over a decade.
Several moderate Democrats, including Golden, had said they needed the CBO’s assessment before they would vote. The others accepted the White House’s math.
The legislation follows the infrastructure investment bill that Biden signed into law this week – two key pillars of the Democratic president’s domestic agenda – and a separate $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that passed in March.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Moira Warburton, additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Katharine Jackson and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Scott Malone, Alex Richardson and Jonathan Oatis)
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
