Biden to sign major climate and health care spending bill

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will sign a comprehensive Democratic spending bill Tuesday that seeks to fight climate change, raise taxes on corporations and expand health care coverage.

Biden is expected to deliver remarks from the White House's State Dining Room at the signing of the legislation, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, at around 3:30 p.m. ET. The bill is a major legislative achievement for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections after more than a year of trying to strike a deal that satisfied both progressives and moderates in the party.

The president is returning in the morning from his vacation in South Carolina, where he had monitored the House's passage of the legislation on Friday. After he signs the measure, he’ll continue his vacation in Wilmington, Del. The House passed the bill in a 220-207, along party lines, with all Republicans opposing it. Earlier in the week, the Senate passed the measure in a 51-50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.

The legislation will raise about $700 billion through corporate tax increases and prescription drug savings, and it will spend about $400 billion on clean energy and health care provisions. The package falls far short of what most Democrats had wanted, however, with safety net items stripped out by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and a slew of tax increases blocked by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.

Biden plans to lean on members of his Cabinet to tout the bill's benefits for Americans as part of what White House officials described as a "coordinated August recess travel blitz."

Nine members of the Cabinet are already set to hold 18 events across the country, including on Tuesday, with EPA Administrator Michael Regan planning to discuss the legislation at a conference in Oklahoma City.

The bill features a series of provisions aimed at helping consumers, including tax credits for clean energy household products and electric vehicles and savings on prescription drugs and health insurance premiums.

White House officials said they plan to hold a larger "celebration" of the legislative victory on Sept. 6.

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