Senate Democrats unveiled the outline of their $3.5 trillion budget resolution.
As The Daily Wire recently reported, lawmakers in the Senate are attempting to enact major components of President Biden’s spending agenda — including the American Families Plan and American Jobs Plan — without Republican support. By some estimates, the legislation would truly carry a price tag as high as $5.5 trillion.
CBS News reports that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told members of his party that “every Senator will have opportunities to shape and influence the final reconciliation bill after adoption of the Budget Resolution.”
“At its core, this legislation is about restoring the middle class in the 21st Century and giving more Americans the opportunity to get there,” he wrote. “This legislation will provide the largest tax cut for American families in a generation, while making the wealthy pay their fair share. In all phases, we will concentrate on communities that have too often been neglected, including communities of color and Native Americans.”
A list of the budget resolution toplines calls for the creation of new programs related to education, healthcare, environment, and infrastructure.
Particularly notable provisions are as follows:
- Establishes Universal Pre-K for 3 and 4 year olds and a new child care benefit for working families
- Makes Community College tuition-free for 2 years
- Creates the first ever federal Paid Family and Medical Leave benefit
- Provides Environmental justice and climate resilience
- Electrifies the federal vehicle fleet and buildings
- Historic level of investments in public housing, green and sustainable housing, housing production and affordability
- Establishes the first ever Civilian Climate Corps
- Provides green cards to millions of immigrant workers and families
- Adds a new Dental, Vision, and Hearing Benefit to the Medicare program
- Creates a new federal health program for Americans in the “Medicaid gap”
The “Civilian Climate Corps” was originally proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA). The legislation would hire a “diverse and equitable” group of 1.5 million young Americans to “complete federally-funded projects that help communities respond to climate change and transition to a clean economy.”
Democrats intend to debate the budget resolution — which will attempt to use a process called reconciliation to bypass the need for a sixty-vote majority in the Senate — as soon as the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is approved. The legislation grants $110 billion to roads and bridges, $73 billion to electric infrastructure, $66 billion to passenger and freight rail, $65 billion to high-speed internet, and $39 billion to public transit, among other provisions.