United States
US Congress passes climate and welfare package
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wraps up voting on Democrats’ climate and health bill. photo
© Patrick Semansky/AP/dpa
After months of bickering, US President Joe Biden can finally record legislative success – but the new law is also a great compromise with his conservative party colleagues.
The US Congress has passed a package of laws to invest billions in climate protection and social affairs. After the Senate, the House of Representatives also passed the so-called Anti-Inflation Act. In both chambers, all of the votes in favor of the bill came from US President Joe Biden’s Democrats, while all votes against came from the ranks of the Republicans.
US President Joe Biden had already announced that he would sign the law. He previously spoke of the largest US investment to date to combat climate change. Biden’s original plans for climate protection and social reforms were among the core projects of his tenure. The current package is a compromise because of disputes within his party. It contains only a fraction of what Biden once wanted to push through.
However, the fact that the law was passed at all is a remarkable success for the president – until recently this was hardly expected. Biden has struggled with poor approval ratings for a long time. Congressional elections are due in the United States in November. The Republicans are expected to have a good chance of winning the majority in the House of Representatives.