Sanders criticized tax breaks for the fossil fuel industry that the bill contains, on top of existing tax breaks the fossil fuel industry receives every year. While the bill would provide more funding to combat climate change than ever before, Sanders said it would still provide substantially less money than Build Back Better. Sanders addressed his remarks directly to Americans who face those issues: “This bill turns its back on you.” In his floor speech, Sanders said the bill should be beefed up before it passes, to include elements of Build Back Better that did not make it into the Manchin deal - including measures to address homelessness, student debt, child care and Medicare. senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, said he did not know how his boss would vote on the bill. Sanders’ office did not immediately respond Wednesday morning to an inquiry about how he would vote if the legislation were not amended. But he did call on the Senate to thoroughly vet and amend the bill, which leadership hopes to fast-track this week.
Sanders’ vote will be critical to advancing the legislation in the evenly divided Senate - and he did not threaten to oppose it. The compromise, negotiated by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “has some good features, but also some very bad features,” Sanders told colleagues Tuesday in his first public remarks about the bill. But the measure pales in comparison to President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better legislation, which Sanders had championed and Manchin had torpedoed.
The legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, would make the country’s greatest investment yet in fighting climate change, extend health insurance subsidies and lower the price of prescription drugs. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., struck last week with Democratic leadership to advance portions of the party’s agenda. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., delivered a highly critical speech on the Senate floor Tuesday about the deal Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks in front of the Statehouse in Montpelier on May 14.
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