Biden Signs Inflation Reduction Act Into Law

MYTH VS. REALITY

MYTH: Federal employees cannot be fired for any reason. REALITY: Federal employees can be fired for performance issues and for misconduct. Approximately 10,000 federal employees are fired every year.

The next day, they rolled it back in H. Res. 1300, keeping alive the bill’s prospects of a House vote.

Since the WEP and GPO’s implementation more than four decades ago, federal retirees have been subjected to an unfair reduction in their Social Security benefits. Introduced by Rep. Davis, the Social Security Fairness Act would repeal these provisions that penalize public servants. At the press conference, Rep. Garret Graves, R-LA, noted that future generations of public servants should not be penalized by these ill-advised policies, but rather incentivized to enter these professions.

For years, NARFE has dedicated advocacy and lobbying efforts to gaining support for this bill. But we need to keep pushing, by adding supporters to ensure we maintain the requisite total, and by pushing for a floor vote. Lend your voice now by using NARFE’s Legislative Action Center to contact your members of Congress.

—BY HANNAH MCLAIN, GRASSROOTS AND PROGRAMS ASSISTANT

After passing the Senate earlier in August, the Inflation Reduction Act, H.R. 5376, passed the House on Friday, August 12, by a vote of 220-207, and was signed into law by President Biden on August 16. The bill will produce $300 billion in estimated deficit reduction from about $739 billion in increased revenue and health care savings paired with about $443 billion in energy, climate and health care spending, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Health care savings derive primarily from reduced Medicare spending on prescription drugs by allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of some of those drugs and requiring pharmaceutical companies to provide rebates when they raise the price of their drugs at a rate greater than inflation. Once law, Medicare will be able to negotiate the prices of 10 prescription drugs in 2026, and another 15 drugs in 2027 and 2028, with the number rising further in 2029 and

beyond. Some of the health care savings offset caps on Medicare Part D enrollee cost sharing and extend some Affordable Care HEALTH CARE SAVINGS DERIVE subsidies. The bill is PRIMARILY FROM REDUCED MEDICARE estimated to SPENDING ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS bring in more BY ALLOWING MEDICARE TO NEGOTIATE than $400 billion THE PRICE OF SOME OF THOSE DRUGS in additional revenue from a AND REQUIRING PHARMACEUTICAL new 15% corporate COMPANIES TO PROVIDE REBATES WHEN minimum tax, THEY RAISE THE PRICE OF THEIR DRUGS greater Internal AT A RATE GREATER THAN INFLATION. Revenue Service enforcement and a 1% excise tax on corporate buybacks. Those savings and increased revenue are designed to offset the bill’s major energy and climate change spending and tax credits. —BY HANNAH MCLAIN, GRASSROOTS AND PROGRAMS ASSISTANT