EBS STAFF
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Senate passed a spending bill on Sunday morning addressing health care, climate and taxes. U.S. sens. from Montana, Republican Steve Daines and Democrat Jon Tester, were divided in their support for the Inflation Reduction Act.
The bill would invest more than $369 billion in energy and climate reform, lower the cost of prescription drugs such as insulin, create a 15 percent minimum tax for corporations with at least $1 billion in annual income and reduce the federal deficit by more than $300 billion.
“I fought to make sure this bill is fully paid for and will cut costs for Americans while making us less reliant on foreign adversaries like Russia to power our country,” Tester said in a statement on Aug. 7. “I’ve heard directly from folks in every corner of our state asking me to find solutions that will bring down costs and help our country maintain its place as the leading economic power in the world, and that’s exactly what the Inflation Reduction Act does.”
Votes for the bill were evenly divided between party lines, passing into the House of Representatives with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Daines called the bill “reckless” in an Aug. 7 tweet, adding that the bill “raises taxes, supersizes the IRS to go after the little guys and kills Montana energy jobs.”
Further discussion on the bill will take place in the House of Representatives later this week.
