WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.N.Y., said Tuesday that Democrats had reached an agreement to reduce the cost of drugs, especially for seniors, a member of the party. major controversy In $1.75 trillion security net bill.
“I am pleased to announce that the Build Back Better law has reached an agreement to reduce drug prices for seniors and families,” Schumer said after the Democratic caucus meeting. “Setting the price of prescription medication has been a consistently top issue for Americans year after year, which includes the vast majority of both Democrats and Republicans.”
Kirsten Cinemas, D-Ariz., a major holdout, supported the agreement.
She welcomes a new agreement on “a historic, transformative Medicare drug negotiation plan,” said spokesman John LaBombard, adding that it would “reduce out-of-pocket costs for seniors — ensuring that drug prices remain the same.” Can’t grow faster than inflation – save taxpayer dollars, and protect innovation.”
Schumer said he expects a debate on the bill, an important part of President Joe Biden’s agenda, to begin on November 15.
Earlier on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., predicted that the party could resolve its disputes On the bill “by the end of the day.”
Pelosi celebrated the drug-pricing agreement: “For a generation, House Democrats have been fighting to deliver real drug price negotiations that will reduce costs. Today’s agreement on strong low drug price provisions for the Build Back Better Act With this, Democrats have a way of making good on this transformational agenda for our superiors.”
She said the deal would lower drug prices for seniors, reduce their out-of-pocket co-pays and set a $2,000 limit for senior citizens’ expenses in Medicare Part D. The bill would also prevent price increases above inflation, which would affect all Americans, she said.
A source familiar with the talks said Pelosi worked with Cinema to broker the deal, adding that the two spoke at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday to work out the deal.
While the agreement represents a major breakthrough, Democrats still have other policy hurdles to overcome before the bill is finalized, including how to deal with immigration.
On Tuesday afternoon, five centrist House Democrats — Ed Case of Hawaii, Jared Golden of Maine, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Stephanie Murphy of Florida and Kurt Schrader of Oregon — wrote a letter telling Pelosi that they were going to the Congressional Budget Office. Or a joint committee. On Taxation to provide an official cost estimate of the law “before considering any floor” of the Build Back Better proposal.
That could affect Pelosi’s plans to have a vote on the bill this week.
“They won’t have one. So if it gets to the floor they’re going to face a dilemma,” Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky. That said, it could take up to two weeks for the Congressional Budget Office scores.
Yarmuth, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said that because Democrats slashed past deadlines, “I’m left saying I have confidence in it.”
Representative Hakeem Jeffries, D.N.Y., said the House wants an “ironclad settlement” with the Senate before a vote in the full House.
Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.VA, who has been another major holdout in the Senate and called the House to vote on the first physical infrastructure bill and hold on to the build back better package, said Tuesday that he recognizes that It’s not going to happen.
“We’re going to do something. But I still believe in my heart of life, with the unknown that we have now, we should have waited,” he said. “We’re not going to wait. That ship has sailed. I understand that.”
Manchin said Democrats agree on key issues such as child care, home care and universal pre-K.
“We’re agreeing on a lot of things that’s really good. And we’re working on climate — very progressive — I think, in a good way. And we’ll do something,” he said.
During a news conference on Tuesday at the United Nations Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Biden said he thinks Munchkin will eventually be on board.
“I believe Joe will be there,” he said.
Munchkin has objected to the imposition Guaranteed paid family and medical leave In the bill because he insists on a low price tag. Democratic leaders have told lawmakers that the measure is unlikely to be included in the final package.
“I support paid leave,” he said Tuesday, “but not in the way it was introduced in this bill.” “We have not been able to do this from the MP’s point of view,” he said.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.N.Y., a longtime advocate for paid leave, who pressed for it to be included in the bill, responded to Munchkin. “He is not an MP,” he said, adding that he had spoken to her about a deal.
But asked at the negotiating table Tuesday morning about outstanding policy points and whether paid leave was one of them, Representative Pramila Jayapal, Congress Progressive Caucus president and another paid leave supporter, told NBC News: “No.”
A senior Democratic aide also disputed that Senate rules were a problem. “The lawmaker has not limited Democrats’ ability to do paid leave through conciliation,” the aide said.
Gottheimer said the bill would include a “complete reinstatement” of the state and local tax (or SALT) deductions that are currently limited to $10,000. He didn’t disclose the exact policy details, but it would reverse a GOP policy from 2017 in which the “Moocher States” raised taxes “on the backs of the people of my district.”
A source said it would be a five-year resumption of SALT, retrospectively for 2021. House Ways and Means Speaker Richard Neill, D-Mass. declined to confirm or deny that description, but told NBC News, “It’s part of the discussion.”
Munchkin made a statement Monday that raised questions about the bill’s impact on inflation and the national debt, which upset some Democrats. But others, including the White House, said they have raised those concerns before and that legislation was designed to address them.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. noted the influence of centrist munchkin and cinema on the law.
“This is a bill that America does not want and does not need. The ideal solution would be not to pass it,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “But if it has to pass, it will be written by Manchin and Cinema.”
House progressives say they will vote for the Build Back Better package as well as the infrastructure bill – which they have put on hold for weeks – once a deal is reached on social spending.
When asked about Manchin’s argument that the package would be more elaborate than the Democrats’, Sen. Bob Menendez, D.N.J. asked the West Virginia lawmaker to tell aides what they would get a “yes” to.
“I don’t know what his views are telling or where he’s getting his figures,” Menendez said. “But at some point, Senator Manchin has to decide what he’s in for. And the rest of the Senate has to tell what he’s for.”