- Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is ready to move forward with Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act.
- The update came Thursday after days of silence from the Arizona moderate, who was the last holdout.
Democrats in array.
After nearly a year and a half of turmoil that left them stalled on the size and scope of their economic ambitions, Senate Democrats on Thursday were said to have clinched an agreement to approve a legislative package carrying many of their domestic priorities on climate, healthcare, and taxes.
"I am pleased to report that we have reached an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act that I believe will receive the support of the entire Senate Democratic conference," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, referring to the $740 billion spending bill he secretly negotiated with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Schumer said the deal "preserves the major components" of the legislation. The package would still allow Medicare to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs, establish over $300 billion in clean-energy tax credits, and extend financial assistance so Americans can purchase health coverage under the Affordable Care Act for three more years. Those made up the core pieces of the Manchin-Schumer bill.
Democrats like Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii hailed the agreement. "It's happening," he wrote on Twitter.
—Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) August 5, 2022
But Manchin and Schumer had to accommodate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the lone Democratic holdout at this stage. Senate Democrats need her vote to approve the bill over GOP opposition using budget reconciliation. The process allows senators to pass certain types of legislation with a simple majority, which Democrats have just barely, wielding the tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris in the 50-50 chamber.
In a statement, Sinema said Democrats had ejected a provision to narrow the carried-interest loophole benefiting private equity and hedge fund managers. She had long been opposed to closing the loophole, conflicting with Manchin's ardent desire to narrow it.
"We have agreed to remove the carried-interest tax provision, protect advanced manufacturing, and boost our clean-energy economy in the Senate's budget-reconciliation legislation," Sinema said in a statement.
She added that she was willing to advance the legislation, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, pending further review from a top Senate official to ensure it complies with reconciliation's strict rules. Sinema said she wanted to deal with carried interest later, but it seems unlikely Republicans would lend support for narrowing or closing the loophole.
Removing carried interest knocks out roughly $14 billion in revenue from Manchin's bill. But a Democrat familiar said a stock-buyback tax had been added to the legislation. It would impose a 1% tax when a public firm buys its own shares as a way to raise the stock price and enrich shareholders. It's expected to raise a lot more money, the person said on condition of anonymity.
Schatz praised the climate provisions that appear to be on a path to final passage sometime early next week. "We have a climate deal that is equal to the moment," he wrote on Twitter. "It is both enormous and not enough, it is both historic and only a down payment. This is the fight of our political generation, so this isn't over."