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November 22, 2021
Dear Friend,
Last Friday, I proudly helped pass the Build Back Better Act, landmark legislation to strengthen the middle class by lowering everyday costs and improving our quality of life here in North Texas. The Build Back Better Act lowers the cost of prescription drugs, expands health care access and affordability, establishes a paid leave program, expands universal pre-K, makes child care more affordable, creates jobs, and addresses the climate crisis.
This is big deal for North Texas so here are a few key provisions that will help middle-class families:
Lowers the cost of prescription drugs, health care and expands coverage
- Closes the Medicaid gap by allowing nearly 1 million Texans who have been denied Medicaid access to affordable plans on healthcare.gov.
- Lowers prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare by allowing Medicare to negotiate the costs of certain drugs, and capping out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 and monthly insulin costs at $35.
- Expands Medicare to include hearing coverage.
- Strengthens home health care and reduces the waitlist for services.
Invests in North Texas families
- Extends the increased Child Tax Credit for one year, with most families receiving monthly payments of $300 per child under 6 or $250 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 leave.
- Ensures middle-class families pay no more than 7 percent of their income on child care.
- 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.
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 by 2030.
- Makes electric vehicles more affordable through a tax credit of up to $12,500.
- 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.
I was raised by a single mother, and I know that any one of these provisions would have been life-changing for our family while I was growing up. I am especially proud to have helped secure a provision for paid family leave. It is a step in the right direction and I will continue to work hard to keep this provision in the bill and finally pass into law a comprehensive national paid leave program.
The Build Back Better Act cuts taxes for the middle class and combats inflation by making sure corporations and the top few wealthiest individuals pay their fair share.
I am excited to see this transformative legislation at work in North Texas and I urge the Senate to work quickly to pass it along to the President’s desk.
It is an honor to serve North Texas, where I was born and raised.
Sincerely,
Colin Allred
Member of Congress
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