Allred Statement After House Passage of the Build Back Better Act

November 19, 2021
Press Release

Helps North Texans by lowering drug costs, closing the Medicaid gap, establishing a paid leave program, and expanding universal pre-K and affordable child care

Washington, D.C.– Congressman Colin Allred (TX-32) today released the following statement after voting in favor of the Build Back Better Act. The bill now awaits Senate action.   

“Texans expect results and today I voted to deliver on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, finally expanding health care coverage to the nearly 1 million Texans who have been denied Medicaid, paid family leave, universal pre-k and making child care more affordable. 

“The Build Back Better Act will make transformative investments in the middle class and working families across North Texas. It will also take historic steps to address the climate crisis and help Texas, and the nation, lead the way on clean energy and the good jobs that go with it. 

“I was raised by a single mom, who was a Dallas school teacher. Any one of these provisions on its own would have been so helpful to our family, and combined, will deliver real relief to help lower health care costs, lower the cost of raising a family and help folks get a good job.”

The programs in the Build Back Better Act are paid for and will lower costs for hard-working Americans, which, according to the nonpartisan Moody’s Analytics, will reduce inflation.

How the Build Back Better Act Helps North Texans:
 

  • Lowers the cost of prescription drugs, health care and expands coverage
    • Closes the Medicaid gap through 2025, allowing about 1 million Texans that would qualify for Medicaid expansion to access low-cost plans on healthcare.gov.
    • Lowers prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare by allowing Medicare to negotiate the costs of certain drugs, capping out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 and monthly insulin costs at $35. The insulin cap applies to those on private insurance as well.
    • Expands Medicare coverage to include hearing coverage.
    • Makes a long-overdue investment in home health care to reduce the backlog and waiting list for the thousands of Texans waiting to receive home health care.
       
  • Invests in North Texas families
    • Extends the increased Child Tax Credit for one year, with most families receiving $300 per month per child under 6 or $250 per month per child ages 6 to 17. This will continue the largest reduction in child poverty in history.
    • Provides every American access to up to 4 weeks of paid family and medical leave by replacing about 70 percent of the average worker’s wages for those weeks. This is a priority of Allred’s as he was the first member of Congress to take paternity leave. 
    • Ensures middle-class families pay no more than 7 percent of their income on child care. A family with one toddler earning $100,000 would save $5,000 on child care per year.
    • Creates universal pre-K by expanding access to free, high-quality preschool to more than 580,000 3 and 4-year-olds in Texas per year.
    • Expands access to free school meals to an additional 1.6 million Texas students during the school year and 3.6 million over the summer.

 

  • Makes the single largest investment to address the climate crisis in history
    • Sets the U.S. on course to meet climate targets in the Paris Agreement — a 50-52% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030.
    • Makes electric vehicles more affordable through tax credits of up to $12,500 for a middle-class family. 
    • Creates a Civilian Climate Corps that will put Texans to work in conserving public lands, bolstering community resilience and addressing the changing climate.
    • Strengthens clean energy domestic manufacturing and supply chains.

 

  • Expands Pell Grants and job training
    • Increases the maximum Pell Grant awards by $550, helping the nearly 500,000 students at public and private non-profit institutions in Texas who rely on Pell.
    • Increases job training grants to community colleges and invests in Texas’s 112 minority-serving institutions, including our HBCUs.

The bill is paid for and does not raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 per year. For more information, read a fact sheet on the House’s Build Back Better legislation here and a more detailed summary of what these provisions mean for Texas here.  

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