Build Back Better Act Includes Billions for Niche Programs and Special Interests: Report
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Build Back Better Act Includes Billions for Niche Programs and Special Interests: Report

REUTERS/Leah Millis

Democrats’ Build Back Better Act includes a number of landmark policy changes — big ticket items such as universal pre-K and climate programs. But Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times reports that the legislation also includes a hodgepodge of smaller programs that have gotten less scrutiny even as they can carry price tags running into the billions of dollars.

“[W]hen a nearly $2 trillion piece of legislation moves through Congress, it affords lawmakers ample opportunity to pursue any number of niche issues — and lobbyists and industries plenty of room to notch long-sought victories tucked deep inside thousands of pages of text,” Wesiman writes.

Those provisions reportedly include a $4.1 billion tax break for buyers of electric bicycles, $2.5 billion for “tree equity” and another $2.5 billion to help “contingency fee” lawyers recover their expenses. There’s also a $1.9 billion program to provide a payroll tax credit to local newspapers and broadcasters; a $50 million pilot program to promote the use of doulas, who help guide pregnant women through labor; and a $35 million tax break — with bipartisan backing — for independent music producers.

Some of the lesser-known programs — whether they’re worthwhile or not — may open the door for additional Republican attacks on the entire package, Weisman notes, but their legislative champions aren’t backing down: “Many obscure provisions may emerge as subjects of ridicule, but Democrats are not shying away from their work,” Weisman reports. “Every niche item has a constituency that regards it as central.”

Read more at The New York Times.

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