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Rep. Panetta Votes for Passage of Build Back Better Act

November 19, 2021

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) voted to pass the Build Back Better Act to make crucial investments in working families, education, green energy, healthcare, and housing. The legislation invests in childcare and universal Pre-K, improves our schools, and helps students afford college. It extends the historic Child Tax Cut for middle-class Americans, which is cutting child poverty in half. It lowers healthcare and prescription drug costs and reduces the cost of housing by investing in both accessibility and affordable development. The bill makes the largest investment in clean energy in American history to combat our climate crisis. It reduces the deficit by $100 billion and it is paid for by responsibly raising revenues to fund these investments.

"For far too long we have underinvested in our working families and our working infrastructure. Fortunately, the Build Back Better Act makes much needed investments in childcare, eldercare, healthcare, education, clean energy, and affordable housing that will help working parents to get back into the workforce," said Congressman Panetta. "I'm proud that several of my bills to reduce our carbon output and improve our agriculture potency were included in this legislation, and that we responsibly raise the necessary revenue to fund our priorities. This legislation, along with the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was signed into law this week by the President, will help us in our fight to expand our supply chain capacity, increase our productivity, provide working families with dignity, and ensure the prosperity of the United States in the 21st Century."

The Build Back Better Act Includes:

Lower Health Care Costs – The Build Back Better Act will lower drug costs for seniors and halt price hikes above inflation for all Americans.

  • Ensures Americans with diabetes don't pay more than $35 per month for their insulin.
  • Creates a new, out-of-pocket cap of $2,000 on what seniors pay for their Medicare Part D drugs.
  • Expands the Affordable Care Act to make coverage more affordable for those who buy insurance on their own.
  • Lowers premiums in the ACA Marketplace, with individuals seeing a reduction in their premiums of more than $800 per year.
  • Expands the ACA to cover those in the states that have refused to adopt the Medicaid expansion.
  • Helps older Americans access affordable hearing care by expanding Medicare.

Lower Child Care & Family Care Costs – Build Back Better will save working families more than half their current spending on childcare, ensuring the vast majority of families will have to pay no more than seven percent of their income for child care.

  • Expands the basic promise of free schooling in America for the first time in 100 years with universal pre-school for all 3- and 4-year olds.
  • Establishes a universal and permanent paid family and medical leave program, providing four weeks of paid parental, family caregiving, and medical leave.
  • Expands access to high-quality home care for older adults and people with disabilities.

Child Tax Cut for Working Families – Build Back Better gives more than 35 million families a major tax cut by extending the American Rescue Plan's Child Tax Credit (CTC).

  • Continues the $250 per month tax cuts ($300 for children under 6), which middle-class families receive each month.
  • Makes the CTC permanently refundable, helping families most in need.
  • Eliminates the requirement that children have a Social Security Number to be eligible for the credit, helping all children regardless of immigration status.

Increases Access to Affordable Housing – Build Back Better reduces families' housing costs and expands housing options, with a major housing initiative.

  • Improves and expands the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to double the number of LIHTC-funded projects in California.
  • Invests $24 billion in rental assistance.
  • Provides $10 billion in down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
  • Provides $65 billion for public and assisted housing.

Largest Investment to Combat Climate Crisis in History – Build Back Better is the largest effort to combat climate change in American history, investing $555 billion over 10 years in clean energy and climate investments.

  • Extends the investment tax credit (ITC) for clean energy technologies like solar, wind, and geothermal power while adding new technologies like battery storage and linear generators.
  • Creates new credits for next-generation fuels like clean hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel.
  • Improves and increases credits for electric vehicles, creates new credits for commercial EVs like zero-emission buses, and provides consumer tax credits for e-bikes.
  • Provides $12.5 billion in home energy efficiency and appliance electrification rebates to reduce energy usage and electrify appliances.
  • Provides $3 billion for more reliable, efficient, high-capacity transmission lines.
  • Creates a Civilian Climate Corps to create public service opportunities to fight climate change.

Invests in Education – Build Back Better invests in our teachers, schools, and students.

  • Provides $9 billion to Minority Serving Institutions, including Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) on the Central Coast, including $3 billion to increase research capacity.
  • Provides $12.5 billion to lower the cost of higher education by increasing the Pell Grant by $550, and expanding federal financial aid to students with DACA, TPS, and DED status.
  • Invests $650 million in addressing the nationwide teacher shortage by funding efforts to recruit and train educators.
  • Provides $160 million to hire special education teachers.

Invests in Agriculture Research and Conservation – Build Back Better provides $2 billion for agriculture research to advance our food and agriculture system's competitiveness, innovation, food security, and climate change resilience and makes more than $28 billion in agriculture conservation initiative investments.

  • Includes $210 million for the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research to carry out activities related to climate change.
  • Includes $30 million to the Office of the Chief Scientist to carry out advanced research and development relating to climate through the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AGARDA).
  • Includes $210 million for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI).
  • Includes $9 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program – a voluntary conservation program supporting farmers and forest managers with conserving & improving natural resources on their land.
  • Commits $7.5 billion for Regional Conservation Partnership Program to support conservation, restoration and sustainable use of soil, water and wildlife on a regional and watershed scale.
  • Provides $5 billion for soil conservation assistance for producers who establish cover crops for soil health.

Secures Supply Chains – Build Back Better invests in supply chain resilience to increase preparedness for future emergencies.

  • Provides $5 billion to the Department of Commerce to monitor and identify critical manufacturing supply chain vulnerabilities that imperil our national and economic security and support domestic companies and other domestic entities in closing those vulnerabilities.
  • Provides $600 million to the Maritime Administration to support supply chain resilience, reduce port congestion, environmental remediation, develop offshore wind resources, and reduce the impact of ports on the environment.

Through his work on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Panetta was able to secure inclusion of his legislation on green buses, microgrids, e-bikes, linear generators, agriculture research and development, and Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOGS).

Microgrids and Linear Generators – The bill contains microgrid controller and linear generator tax credits, which were developed from Rep. Panetta's MICROGRID Act and Clean Energy Production Party Act. These credits will provide energy grid resiliency through incentivizing the expansion and deployment of microgrids and investment in new linear generator technology.

E-Bikes – The tax credit for e-bikes, which was developed from Rep. Panetta's E-BIKE Act, will amount to a 30 percent tax credit directly to consumers. By incentivizing the use of electric bicycles to replace car trips through a consumer tax credit, we can not only encourage more Americans to transition to greener modes of transportation but also help fight the climate crisis.

Green Buses – The tax credit for zero-emission buses, which was developed by Rep. Panetta's Green Bus Tax Credit Act, will amount to a 30 percent manufacturers tax credit. This credit will spur the development of the zero-emission bus industry, bringing down prices, and making green buses more affordable across the country.

Agriculture Research and Development – The bill contains $210 million for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), the nation's leading competitive grants program for agricultural sciences. It also contains $30 million for a newly created Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AGARDA), which will increase mechanization capabilities for the harvesting of specialty crops, address labor needs, and develop novel countermeasures to prevent animal and plant diseases. As co-chair of the Ag Research Caucus, Rep. Panetta led 128 Members of Congress in securing this crucial funding in the Build Back Better Act.

Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOGs) – The bill includes critical improvements to the HPOG program. It requires that training hours meet state and industry standards, ensuring participants receive valuable credentials they can use to get jobs, generate wealth for their families, and go on to earn additional credentials in the future.

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