AFL CIO Celebrates Two Year Anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act

August 16, 2024

Statement from AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA):

In the two years since the Biden-Harris administration signed it into law, the Inflation Reduction Act has continued to live up to its promise. The IRA has proven that climate action can drive our economy by creating more than 330,000 new clean energy jobs, lowering energy costs for 3.4 million Americans in 2023 alone, and revitalizing American manufacturing and construction while protecting our communities from the ravages of climate change. It has helped rebalance the inequality in our economy by forcing billion-dollar companies to pay a 15% corporate minimum tax and empowering the IRS to crack down on wealthy tax cheats, recovering more than $1 billion so far. It has saved 4 million older Americans and other Medicare beneficiaries thousands a year with $35 per month insulin and a $2,000 out-of-pocket drug cost cap. And just yesterday, the Biden-Harris administration announced it is slashing the costs of 10 of the most expensive and widely used drugs after the government's first-ever negotiation with Medicare.

These tremendous gains, achieved in partnership with the labor movement, stand to be destroyed by Donald Trump if he is elected for a second term. Trump's Project 2025 Agenda calls for the full repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act. It would eliminatehundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs, sendAmerican manufacturing jobs back overseas, gut the IRA's game-changing provisions to pay fair wages and increase apprenticeship opportunities, and raise energy and transportation costs for working families. It would destroyMedicare Part D's ability to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. And it would let billionaires and giant corporations go back to cheating on their taxes while hardworking union families continue to pay our fair share.

Working people will not stand for Trump's anti-science, union-busting, inflationary, job-losing policies. That's why the AFL-CIO is fighting to elect Vice President Kamala Harris, who cast the tie-breaking vote to pass the IRA and has been a key partner in holding Big Pharma and other corporations accountable and ensuring unions are at the table when we build the clean energy future. We look forward to working with the Harris-Walz administration to build upon the IRA's success and continue to make health care more accessible and affordable, and create good-paying, union jobs in the green economy.

Background:

Labor wins achieved by the Inflation Reduction Act:

• Created more than 330,000 new clean energy jobs.
• Incentivized companies to pay family-sustaining prevailing wages and hire from registered apprenticeship programs.
• Cut costs for working people by lowering monthly energy bills and prescription drug prices.
• Revitalized the American manufacturing and construction industries-manufacturing construction spending has doubled since the law was signed.
• Helped protect our communities and future generations from the ravages of climate change by putting the United States on a path to cutting carbon emissions to 40% below 2005 levels by 2030.

How Trump plans to gut the Inflation Reduction Act:

• By ending all grants and spending under the IRA, Trump would eliminate hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs and send American manufacturing jobs overseas to China.
• By vowing to gut the labor standards, mentioned in Trump's Project 2025 Agenda, that made the IRA such a game-changer for workers by crushing project labor agreements and undermining Registered Apprenticeship Programs.
• By saying he'll end IRA programs that cut costs for working families, such as tax credits for electric vehicles, solar and wind power, and home upgrades to protect from extreme weather.
• By pledging to end Medicare drug price negotiations, costing Americans who rely on Medicare an additional $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs and increasing the federal deficit by $6 billion.

Contact: Prerna Jagadeesh, 202-637-5018