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Washington, DC -- Today, Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) voted to advance the Build Back Better Act through the House of Representatives, which will help every Virginia family bounce back strong from the pandemic by lowering everyday costs for families, making health care more affordable, and combating the climate crisis while creating good-paying American jobs.

“Our Build Back Better Act will lighten the financial burdens that have weighed extra heavy on families during the pandemic and keep our economy on a path to a strong and full recovery,” said Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton. “The transformative policies that we’re delivering in this legislation -- universal pre-K, affordable child care, and lower cost health care and prescription drugs -- will lower day-to-day costs for Virginians and help set our kids up for a bright future. I’ll continue fighting for the issues most important to Virginia families as this crucial legislation moves through Congress.”

The Build Back Better Act will:

• Lower everyday costs for Virginia families

• Provide universal paid leave for all American workers
• Deliver transformative investment in kids and caregiving by providing free pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds
• Extend the expanded Child Tax Credit, which has delivered over 100,000 major tax cut payments a month to Virginia-10 families
• Save most families more than half their current spending on child care, ensuring the vast majority will not spend more than 7% of their income on child care
• Raise limit on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) from $10,000 to $72,000; in 2017, the average SALT deduction for Virginia-10 families was $17,885

• Expand access to affordable health care and lower the cost of prescription drugs

• Allow the government to negotiate prescription drug prices in Medicare, reducing a drug’s price by at least 25-60 percent
• Cap the cost-sharing for insulin so Americans with diabetes don’t pay more than $35 per month
• Expand access to quality home-based services, helping millions of older adults and individuals with disabilities receive home-based care
• Invest in reinsurance programs to reduce individual market premiums by an estimated 7% on average
• Extend enhanced premium subsidies in the Affordable Care Act marketplace that were included in the American Rescue Plan, which saved Americans an average of $67 a month on health care costs

• Combat the climate crisis by creating a clean energy future, producing millions of good-paying jobs

• Invest in the development of innovative green technologies and American manufacturing
• Deliver consumer rebates and credits to save American families money as they shift to clean energy and electrification
• Ensure clean energy technology -- from wind turbine blades to solar panels to electric cars -- will be built in the U.S.

The Build Back Better Act is paid for by ensuring that corporations and the very wealthiest Americans are paying their fair share.

Congresswoman Wexton successfully advocated to remove a proposed IRS tax information reporting provision, which many constituents expressed concern over due to privacy security.

Wexton delivered a speech on the House floor on Thursday advocating for passage of the Build Back Better Act and emphasizing the benefits it will bring to Virginia families. You can watch her speech here.

A section-by-section summary of the Build Back Better Act can be found here.

The full text of the Build Back Better Act can be found here.

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