Build Back Better Plan

This article is about President Joe Biden's economic plan. For the social services and climate portions of the Build Back Better Plan, see Build Back Better Act. For the initiative by G7 countries, see Build Back Better World.

President Biden promotes his Build Back Better Plan at Germanna Community College, Virginia, on February 10, 2022.

The Build Back Better Plan or Build Back Better Agenda was a legislative framework proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden between 2020 and 2021. Generally viewed as ambitious in size and scope, it sought the largest nationwide public investment in social, infrastructural, and environmental programs since the 1930s Great Depression-era policies of the New Deal.[1][non-primary source needed]

The Build Back Better plan was divided into three parts:

  1. American Rescue Plan (ARP), a COVID-19 pandemic-relief bill;
  2. American Jobs Plan (AJP), a proposal to address long-neglected infrastructure needs and reduce America's contributions to destructive effects of climate change;[2]
  3. American Families Plan (AFP), a proposal to fund a variety of social policy initiatives, some of which (e.g., paid parental leave) had never before been enacted nationally in the U.S.[3]

The first part was passed as the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and was signed into law in March 2021.[4] The other two parts were reworked into different bills over the course of extensive negotiations. Aspects of the AJP's infrastructure goals were diverted into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in November 2021.

Other AJP priorities (e.g., climate change remediation, home health care reform, etc.) were then merged with the AFP to form the Build Back Better Act.[5] The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives but struggled to gain the support of Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona in the evenly divided Senate, with unified Republican opposition. Manchin and Sinema negotiated the reduction of Build Back Better Act's size, scope, and cost significantly with Biden and Democratic congressional leaders, but Manchin, widely viewed as the key swing vote needed to pass the bill in the Senate, ultimately rejected it over the procedural tactics used.[6]

Continued negotiations between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer eventually resulted in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which was signed into law in August 2022, and incorporated some of the Build Back Better Act's climate change, healthcare, and tax reform proposals while excluding its social safety net proposals.[7]

  1. ^ "The Build Back Better Framework". The White House. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Fact Sheet: The American Families Plan". The White House. April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  4. ^ Yarmuth, John A. (March 11, 2021). "H.R.1319 – 117th Congress (2021–2022): American Rescue Plan Act of 2021". Congress.gov. Archived from the original on February 26, 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  5. ^ "Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Passes, What Happens Next". Investopedia. Retrieved November 14, 2021.
  6. ^ Seipel, Arnie (December 19, 2021). "Joe Manchin says he won't support President Biden's Build Back Better plan". NPR.
  7. ^ "How Democrats plan to overhaul taxes, climate spending, and health care before the midterms". Vox. July 27, 2022. Retrieved August 24, 2022.