Senate Update: America Is on the Move

Building a Stronger Future

Just last month, we took historic action to address some of the biggest challenges our nation faces through the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. This landmark bill addresses the worsening climate crisis, sky-high prescription drug costs, a tax code that unfairly puts corporations and the wealthy before working Americans, and inflation - all while reducing our national debt and creating new jobs. The Inflation Reduction Act is now law, and it's here to improve the everyday lives of Marylanders - from lowering their health care costs to creating good-paying clean energy jobs. Over the last few weeks, it has been great to join Marylanders across our state to celebrate what this legislation does for Maryland and our country.

In addition to working closely with colleagues to pass this bill through the Senate, I authored two key provisions that were included in the final law. One - based on my HOPE for HOMES Act - will help lower home energy costs for Americans while creating jobs and tackling the ongoing climate crisis. I was recently joined by Maryland homeowners, workers, healthy housing and climate advocates, and federal, state, and local officials in Baltimore to highlight that provision, which will provide consumers with large rebates to help them pay the upfront costs of making their homes more energy efficient. Those home improvements are projected to save homeowners up to $750 every year on their energy bills. On top of that, the HOPE for HOMES provision in the Inflation Reduction Act includes $200 million for job training in the energy efficiency sector, and that investment alone is projected to create 50,000 jobs over the next few years. In total, this measure is a win-win-win: it will save homeowners money, generate more good-paying jobs, and help confront the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The other provision I authored creates a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which will provide resources that can be used to launch a National Climate Bank to partner with the private sector and community-based lenders to make an array of investments in clean energy technologies and energy efficiency improvements. This will serve as a force multiplier for the development and deployment of clean energy on a national, regional, and local scale. Additionally, 40 percent of the general funding in the provision will be used for targeted investments to underserved communities that have been overburdened by pollution.

The Inflation Reduction Act also includes over $60 billion in tax credits to boost clean technology manufacturing. These tax credits are going to incentivize green energy companies to do business in the U.S., build their factories in the U.S., and employ American workers - investments that are critical for the continued economic success of our state and our country. Right now, two clean energy companies are building wind turbine fabrication centers in Maryland to support their offshore wind farms coming to the mid-Atlantic - and together, these projects will create a minimum of 10,000 jobs over the next several years. By making the U.S. even more attractive for other green energy companies through the new tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, we'll be able to spur additional economic growth in our state and across the country - all while fighting the existential threat of climate change.

In short, the transformative Inflation Reduction Act will address a number of critical challenges facing our nation, including our fight against the climate emergency, our battle to lower the costs of prescription drugs, health care, and other important needs, and our efforts to build an economy that invests in more prosperity and opportunity for all Americans.