President Joe Biden will mark the anniversary of one of his signature pieces of legislation on Wednesday – the so-called Inflation Reduction Act – as the administration ramps up efforts to explain to the American people how the sprawling climate, health care and tax law is impacting their lives.
Among the bill’s provisions are a $35 per month cap on insulin for Medicare recipients, reforms to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices for certain medications, increased tax enforcement and a 15% corporate minimum tax rate, as well as the largest-ever federal investment to fight climate change. It passed both the Democratic-controlled House and Senate last year without a single vote of Republican support.
The president will be joined by union workers, farmers and business owners – people the White House says are directly benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act – at the White House on Wednesday to officially mark a year since Biden signed the bill into law.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., are also set to speak at the event in the East Room.
Wednesday’s ceremony follows a months-long, full-force effort from the administration to convince the public Biden’s economic agenda – dubbed “Bidenomics” – is working.
Top officials and Biden himself have fanned out across the country to talk about the president’s legislative wins – specifically the Inflation Reduction Act, bipartisan infrastructure law and a massive bill that bolsters production of semiconductor chips – hoping to illustrate how they are impacting people’s lives.
On Wednesday, the administration is also taking its messaging efforts online – launching a new tool on invest.gov that showcases the stories of people across the country and the impact the president’s economic agenda has had on their lives.
That outreach is in the face of polls showing a majority of voters consistently disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy even amid signs of a U.S. economic upswing.
“We just have to make it real and tell the story because historic legislation is fantastic but it’s conceptual,” White House chief of staff Jeff Zients told reporters at a briefing. “Here, this is changing people’s lives and that is why we need to be on the ground and be comfortable being repetitive about how this is making people’s lives better.”
At a fundraising event in Utah last week, Biden himself told donors he had second thoughts about the name of the law he is celebrating Wednesday.
“The Inflation Reduction Act — I wish I hadn’t called it that, because it has less to do with reducing inflation than it does to do with dealing with providing for alternatives that generate economic growth,” he said.
The inflation rate has eased over the past year to 3.2% – although still above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%. Job growth has stayed solid and the economy has avoided the recession that many analysts said would be needed to bring down prices.
When asked about why these positive indicators have not resonated with the American people, the White House often cites the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the time it takes for people to feel the effects of the laws Biden has signed.
During his remarks Wednesday, Biden will lean into the climate provisions of the bill, noting how the investments spurred by it have not only created jobs but given communities new resources to protect themselves from climate-related threats.
The Treasury is marking the legislation’s anniversary by releasing a new analysis that it says shows new clean energy investments spurred by the law are largely benefitting underserved communities.
The agency report issued Wednesday states that new investments in clean energy, electric vehicles and batteries are concentrated in areas with lower employment, wages and college graduation rates.
“Not only will these investments provide opportunity to communities that need it the most, but they will also leverage the most promising regions for national productivity growth,” said Treasury officials Eric Van Nostrand and Laura Feiveson in a Wednesday blog post.
