NTU urges all Senators to vote “YES” on the following amendments to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), should the amendments receive consideration on the Senate floor. We also urge Senators to support additional amendments that reduce the burden of taxation and the size of government while improving our nation’s fiscal condition. Our Vote Alert on the underlying legislation, in which we strongly urge a “NO” vote, can be found here.
Tax/Finance
- Motion to Commit #38 from Sen. John Thune (R-SD): This motion to commit would instruct the Finance Committee to shift $80 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service – the majority for enforcement – to instead deliver tax relief for working families and small businesses. We also urge support for similar amendments that would reduce or eliminate new funding for the IRS including (but not necessarily limited to) Amendment #5250 (Sen. Thune), Amendment #5258 (Sen. Daines), Amendment #5263 (Sen. Cruz) and Amendment #5289 (Sen. Blackburn).
- Motion to Commit #59 from Sen. James Lankford (R-OK): This motion to commit would instruct the Finance Committee to restrict Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funding until the agency has improved its data security and its protections for private, sensitive taxpayer data.
- Amendments #5196 and #5330 from Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT): These amendments would limit Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits (PTCs) to households making 750 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) or less. This a sensible amendment that would prevent taxpayer-funded subsidies going to individuals making more than $101,925 in 2022 or a family of four making more than $208,125.
- Amendment #5350 from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA): This amendment from Sen. Toomey would replace the health and energy subsidies in the legislation with permanent, 100-percent bonus depreciation. The Tax Foundation estimates that this proposal will raise U.S. gross domestic product by 0.5 percent, the wage rate by 0.4 percent, and U.S. capital stock by 0.9 percent, while creating more than 85,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
- Amendments and Motions to Commit from several Senators to prohibit tax increases on households making less than $400,000 a year. These include (but may not be limited to) MTC #37 (Sen. Thune), MTC #69 (Sen. Cruz), Amendment #5213 (Sen. Hagerty), and MTC #125 (Sen. Young).
- Amendment #5305 from Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX): This amendment would extend the $2,000 Child Tax Credit (CTC) as expanded under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), and would offset the budget impact of this extension by extending the $10,000 state and local tax (SALT) deduction and removing nearly $80 billion in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funding in the IRA.
Education
- Motion to Commit #39 from Sen. John Thune (R-SD): This motion to commit would instruct the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee to add to the IRA provisions that would prohibit the President from forgiving federal student loan debt for high-income individuals. Blanket federal student loan forgiveness would cost taxpayers and would benefit many graduates with significant earning power.
Banking
- Motion to Commit #227 from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA): This motion to commit would instruct the Banking Committee to block the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from implementing an overly burdensome proposed rule that would require companies to publicly disclose climate-related information. As NTU noted in comments, the SEC lacks authority to implement this rule, which would impose heavy costs on American businesses.
Health Care
- Motion to Commit #53 from Sen. James Lankford (R-OK): This motion to commit would instruct the Finance Committee to incentivize rather than discourage new prescription drug development.
- Amendment #5308 from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT): This amendment from Sen. Lee would prohibit policymakers from further delaying a prescription drug rebate rule from the previous administration that proponents of the IRA are relying on for on-paper deficit reduction in the overall legislation. Congress has delayed this never-implemented regulation time and time again, and NTU strongly believes that lawmakers should not use delay or repeal of the rule as an offset for new spending.
Labor/Employment
- Motion to Commit #180 from Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC): This motion to commit would instruct the Finance Committee to eliminate prevailing wage requirements in the legislation. Prevailing wage requirements raise costs for taxpayers, and reduce the return on taxpayers’ investments in various federal spending programs and tax expenditures.
NTU urges all Senators to vote “NO” on the following amendments to the Inflation Reduction Act, should the amendments receive consideration on the Senate floor.
Tax/Finance
- Amendment #5208 from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): This amendment would extend the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) and offset the budget impact of that extension with an increase in the corporate tax rate. While lawmakers should engage in bipartisan discussions concerning the expiry of the CTC as expanded by the TCJA, they should not offset the cost of an expanded CTC with a corporate tax rate increase as the nation could be on the verge of a recession.
Health Care
- Amendment #5210 from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): This amendment would apply aggressive government price controls to prescription drugs in Medicare Parts B and D, matching what the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or the General Services Administration (GSA) pays for prescription drugs, whichever is lower. Prescription drug price controls will create scarcity, destroy incentives for pharmaceutical manufacturers to invest in research and development, and could reduce future innovations and cures.
- Amendment #5211 from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): This amendment would require Medicare to cover dental, hearing, and vision care. Past iterations of this proposal were estimated to cost upwards of $350 billion over 10 years, a serious burden to taxpayers that deserves more careful consideration and deliberation in Congress and – should lawmakers ever move forward with the proposal – must be offset with spending reductions elsewhere in the budget.
Energy/Environment
- Amendment #5209 from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT): This amendment would establish a Civilian Climate Corps. Past iterations of this proposal would have cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.
If you have any questions, please contact NTU Director of Federal Policy Andrew Lautz at alautz@ntu.org.