US House Kicks Off $3.5 Trillion Budget Process
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Infrastructure and climate change priorities of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda will be considered when congressional lawmakers return to the nation’s capital the week of Sept. 13.
Democrats in the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives say they will stitch together a key pillar of the president’s build back better vision in the form of a $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation measure. House Democrats also will aim to advance a Senate-passed $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package by the end of the month.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reassured colleagues of her caucus’ objectives, primarily to finalize the intricate, multitrillion-dollar budget process. Democrats hold a slim majority in both the House and the Senate.
“We will pass that legislation, but we can only do so as we recognize, as we recognize that if we’re going to ‘build back better,’ we have to do so including many more people, starting with women, who took the biggest hit, the biggest hit in the COVID[-19],” Pelosi told reporters Sept. 8.
“As important as infrastructure is, and we support that, it is not the totality of [Biden’s] vision. It’s a vision that does not just restore it to where we were before, but takes us into the future,” the speaker continued.
House leaders instructed the transportation, tax, energy and social programs committees to approve their policy input for the Budget Committee before the end of the month. After the committees approve their portions of the budget plan, the Budget Committee will piece together the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. This reconciliation bill would require a simple majority for passage in the Senate where Democrats in the majority have 50 members and the vice president.
Tackling the infrastructure policy aspects of the budget plan will be the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which intends to consider its portion of the reconciliation package Sept. 14.
Of the $3.5 trillion plan, the transportation panel was given jurisdiction over $60 billion through fiscal 2031 for climate change infrastructure resilience programs, and safety technologies.
Separately, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s budget recommendations include clean energy and environmental programs linked to climate change research.
The Build Back Better plan will:
Create jobs
Deliver tax cuts
Lower costs for families
Full stop. — House Democrats (@HouseDemocrats) September 8, 2021
Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.), expected to proceed with tax increases on high-earning individuals and corporations, announced plans to put before the tax-writing panel updates to health care, retirement incentives and child care facilities, as well as expand the Trade Adjustment Assistance program for the unemployed. To fund various programs, the budget plan’s sponsors are proposing tax increases on certain corporations, as well as households that earn more than $400,000 annually.
“This grueling pandemic continues to deliver one-two punches in the form of the public health and economic crises, and the American people are counting on us to build back better,” Neal said.
“The Ways and Means Committee will put an end to the idea that only some workers are worthy of ‘perks’ like paid leave, child care and assistance in saving for retirement, and finally commit to investments that make these supports fixtures of the American workplace. We will also examine how we can commit resources to modernize a key trade program that supports American workers facing hardship due to international competition,” the chairman added.
The White House continues to endorse the House’s budgetary goals meant to facilitate enactment of the president’s infrastructure and social policies. As Biden recently noted, “Simply put, worker power is essential to building our economy back better than before; it’s just that basic, to counter corporate power, to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.”
“We have to invest in high-quality job training and apprenticeships in fast-growing sectors; compete to give middle-class families a well-deserved tax cut for day care and health care; and provide a significant monthly tax cut for working families with children,” added Biden.
Despite President Biden’s own misleading claims, Main Street and American workers will shoulder the burden of Democrats’ tax hikes in higher prices, slashed wages, and fewer opportunities. https://t.co/4fJEZd80ps — Ways and Means GOP (@WaysandMeansGOP) September 9, 2021
Meanwhile, congressional Republican leaders have affirmed a commitment to push back on the Democrats’ budgetary aims.
The GOP members on the Ways and Means Committee, for instance, argued in a joint statement that the Democrats’ agenda would hinder small businesses with higher taxes: “As Democrats try to ram through their reckless $3.5 trillion tax and spend agenda, let’s not forget that American families and Main Street businesses will be left shouldering the burden of these devastating tax hikes.”
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), Budget Committee ranking member, said, “Budgeting means coming up with a plan before you start spending. Of course, this budget is not about strengthening the fiscal integrity of our nation. Nor is this budget about getting government spending and inflation under control. We know it is not about protecting the integrity of programs our seniors rely upon. And it certainly does not protect American working families and those making less than $400,000 a year from tax increases.
“In fact, it does the opposite.”
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