Hundreds of billions of dollars
US Senate passes Biden’s climate and welfare package
08/07/2022 9:33 p.m
A year and a half after President Joe Biden took office, the US Senate passed his multi-billion dollar climate and social package. The package envisages spending around $370 billion on energy security and climate protection and $64 billion on health care.
A year and a half after President Joe Biden took office, the US Senate approved his multi-billion dollar climate and social package. The package, which provides around $370 billion (about 363 billion euros) for energy security and climate protection and $64 billion for health care, was passed with the votes of the Democrats on Sunday. The approval is a major achievement for Biden, who has so far failed to deliver on the major reforms that he promised.
The adoption was possible because the Democrats had surprisingly reached an internal party agreement at the end of July. Sen. Joe Manchin, a member of the conservative wing of the party, has given up his opposition to a significantly slimmed down version of last year’s Biden’s ambitious climate and social welfare package. The package now available is significantly smaller than Biden’s previous plans.
Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who blocked the package with Manchin last year, eventually backed the new law. That was extremely important, since the Democrats cannot afford a single dissenter given the wafer-thin majority in the Senate.
After the vote in the Senate, the legislative package now goes to the House of Representatives, where the Democrats have a narrow majority. A few months before the congressional midterm elections in November, passing the law, even in its slimmed down version, would be a great success for the president and his party.
Republicans are also heavily critical of the new package. “We will do what we can to prevent this law from happening,” said Republican Senator John Thune on Friday. But Republicans’ options are limited as long as there are no dissenters within the Democrats. However, Republicans could try to prolong the process with amendments.