Every NJ House Democrat Votes ‘Yes’ For Build Back Better Act

NEW JERSEY — Like nearly all of their peers across the nation, New Jersey’s House of Representative members voted along party lines to narrowly pass President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion “Build Back Better Act” on Friday.

In New Jersey, every Democratic member of the House voted for the Build Back Better Act, including Donald Norcross, Andy Kim, Josh Gottheimer, Frank Pallone, Tom Malinowski, Albio Sires, Bill Pascrell Jr., Donald Payne Jr., Mikie Sherrill and Bonnie Watson Coleman.

Meanwhile, the bill saw “no” votes from the state’s two Republican House members, Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith.

Van Drew and Smith voted to pass the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last week, another pillar of Biden’s domestic agenda. Both saw criticism from hardline conservatives over their votes.

• See related article: NJ House Members All Vote Yes On $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill

If it passes the Senate and gets Biden’s signature, the massive funding package would expand social services across the nation. It passed the House by a vote of 220-213.

The 2,100-page bill's initiatives include bolstering child care assistance, creating free preschool, curbing seniors' prescription drug costs and increasing efforts to slow climate change. Also included are tax credits to spur clean energy development, bolstered child care assistance and extended tax breaks for millions of families with children, lower-earning workers and people buying private health insurance. Read More: Dems' Sweeping Social, Climate Bill Passes Divided House

As written, the bill would also restore most of the federal deduction for state and local taxes (SALT), increasing the cap to $80,000 through 2030.

The Build Back Better Act now faces a tough challenge in the U.S. Senate, where cost-cutting demands seem certain to force significant changes.

Bob Hugin, chair of the New Jersey Republican Party, blasted the Build Back Better bill after its passage in the House, calling it “one of the most irresponsible pieces of legislation our country has ever seen.”

“Under their watch, Democrats will have increased the combined federal and state tax rate on New Jersey businesses to the highest on planet Earth, while worsening the skyrocketing inflation that is already hurting New Jersey families at the grocery store and gas pump,” Hugin claimed. “New Jersey voters will hold them accountable for supporting Nancy Pelosi at the expense of New Jersey taxpayers.”

But several House Democrats said the bill is a big win for the Garden State, including its changes to the SALT deduction.

Reps. Pascrell, Gottheimer and Sherrill issued a joint statement about the potential boon to New Jersey homeowners:

“Today, we voted to finally fix the harmful State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap and cut taxes for middle class families. Since it was implemented in the 2017 Republican Tax Hike Bill, the cap has unfairly double taxed families across the country and worked to defund our states’ critical priorities. The bill we just passed in the House would effectively eliminate the impact of the SALT cap for virtually every family we represent, putting money back in the pockets of hardworking, middle class families in New Jersey and New York. Simultaneously, it will ensure our communities are able to make the critical investments we need, like funding the best public schools in the nation and supporting our law enforcement and first responders. This is a huge win for our constituents, and we could not be more honored to have fought for and delivered it for them.”

Other New Jersey House Democrats praised the bill on Friday, saying it will make investments that have been put on the back burner for far too long.

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Some progressives, however, say the bill is a good start – but a long battle remains ahead.

Imani Oakley, a 2022 Congressional candidate in New Jersey’s 10th district, said the bill is only part of what the nation – and the state – needs to recover and rebuild.

“House moderates continuously watered-down important proposals to support corporate interests over the needs of working people,” Oakley said. “Now is not the time for half-measures.”

“We need transformative and just change to address the glaring problems the pandemic exposed,” Oakley urged. “We face an impending climate crisis, a housing affordability crisis, and a health care crisis. Democrats must rise to the occasion and not only pass the Build Back Better Act in the Senate, but continue to legislate transformatively with policies like a Green New Deal and Medicare for All.”

• See related article: President Biden Visits NJ, Breaks Ground On Portal North Bridge
• See related article: Menendez, Sanders: SALT Is For Working Families, Not Billionaires

FOLLOWING THE MONEY

Biden and other Democratic leaders have said the measure would pay for itself, largely through tax increases on the wealthy, big corporations and companies doing business abroad.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the package would worsen federal deficits by $160 billion over the coming decade.

The nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released a state-by-state analysis of the Build Back Better Act on Thursday. The group wrote:

“If the bill becomes law, in 2022 federal taxes would go up for the average taxpayer among the richest one percent and down for the average taxpayer in other income groups. In the first few years after 2022 the effects would be similar except that the overall tax increase for the richest one percent would be larger (because corporate tax increases go into effect in 2023 and mainly affect the rich) and tax cuts for low- and middle-income groups would be smaller because most of the provisions related to refundable tax credits would expire at the end of 2022. Many Democrats in Congress want to make all the refundable tax credit provisions permanent, but even if they do not, the tax provisions in the bill would make the tax system significantly more progressive than it is today.”

Here's what the ITEP had to say about the changes to the SALT deduction:

“One provision in the bill would raise the cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) from $10,000 to $80,000 and then extend the cap for several years beyond its expiration date under current law, which is the end of 2025. Most people would likely think of this provision as a tax cut because that will be its effect compared to current law each year through 2025. But in years after that it technically raises revenue compared to current law (although many of the 2017 provisions that lose revenue could eventually be extended as well before the end of 2025).”

The group continued:

“The SALT cap is the only truly significant provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that limits tax breaks for the rich. To be sure, Republicans included this revenue-raising provision in their bill because it mainly takes tax breaks from people living in high-tax states, which are mostly ‘blue’ states. This is clearly not a sound way to make tax policy. But the answer cannot be to simply repeal the SALT cap, as many congressional Democrats proposed since the 2017 law was enacted. Estimates from ITEP show that the majority of benefits from fully repealing the SALT cap would go to the richest 1 percent. The House Build Back Better bill does not repeal SALT cap entirely but limits it in a way that loses significant revenue. While repealing the SALT cap would cost $101 billion in 2022, increasing the cap to $80,000 would cost $64 billon. If the provision raising the cap to $80,000 is enacted into law three-fourths of the benefits would go to the richest five percent and more than a third of the benefits would go to the richest one percent.”

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