What’s in Biden’s $1.75 trillion ‘Build Back Better’ package?

US House of Representatives passes Biden package that’s a cornerstone of his agenda to rebuild America.

Climate

• Rebates and credits to cut the cost of rooftop solar systems by 30 percent and union-made electric vehicles produced in the US by $12,500
• Incentives to encourage US manufacturing of clean energy technology and shift other industries to reduce carbon emissions
• Creates 300,000-strong Civilian Climate Corps to work on environmental and climate projects
• Creates a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator to invest in climate-related projects, with at least 40 percent serving disadvantaged communities
• New spending on coastal restoration, forest management and soil conservation

Healthcare

• Enables the Medicare health plan for seniors to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs that have been on the market for at least nine years
• Penalises drug companies that increase prices faster than inflation
• Caps out-of-pocket prescription drug prices at $2,000 per year and lowers insulin prices to $35 per month
• Expands Medicare to cover hearing aids
• Reduces Affordable Care Act premiums by an average of $600 per person per year
• Expands Medicaid coverage to low-income people in the 12 states that have opted not to expand the programme on their own

Housing

• Expands affordable housing, public housing and rental assistance programmes
• Broadens downpayment assistance to bolster homeownership
• Expands lead paint removal efforts
• Supports community-led redevelopment in low-income neighbourhoods
• Encourages local governments to ease zoning restrictions that limit housing density

Education

• Increases Pell Grants for college costs
• More aid for historically Black colleges and other minority-serving schools
• Boosts the Labor Department’s job training programmes by 50 percent

Immigration*

• $100bn in “immigration reform”, which is additional funding beyond the $1.75 trillion
• Efforts to reduce backlogs, expand legal services and improve border processing and asylum programmes

Other programmes

• Expands a tax credit for low-income workers to cover those who do not have children
• More money for rural projects
• Supports community violence intervention

Taxes

• 15 percent minimum tax on corporate profits for companies with more than $1bn in profits
• 1 percent surcharge on stock buybacks
• 15 percent minimum tax on foreign profits of US corporations
• 5 percent surtax on personal income above $10m
• Additional 3 percent surtax on income above $25m
• Close loophole to prevent the wealthy from avoiding 3.8 percent Medicare tax
• Bolster the Internal Revenue Service to improve customer service and focus enforcement on wealthy tax evaders
• Expands a deduction for state and local taxes that primarily benefits upper-income households in high-tax states. Republicans had reduced that benefit in their 2017 tax cut package

*Immigration provisions could be removed from the legislation by the Senate parliamentarian