Kaine Statement Applauding House Passage of the Build Back Better Bill to Lower Costs for American Families

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement applauding the House passage of the Build Back Better bill, transformative legislation he helped draft and lead in the Senate, that will lower costs and cut taxes for American families:

“I’m thrilled the House has passed the Build Back Better bill, getting this historic legislation one step closer to becoming law,” said Senator Kaine. “This legislation will make pre-K universal, expand affordable child care, and boost job training programs to help workers get the jobs that will be created by the bipartisan infrastructure bill. This legislation will position working families and children for success for years to come.”

As a member of both the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate HELP Committee, Kaine has worked tirelessly on the Build Back Better bill to deliver results for all Virginians.

Last month, Kaine led 15 of his colleagues in a letter calling for job training investments in the Build Back Better bill. Following his urging, the Build Back Better bill includes robust support for job training, including significant investments based on Kaine’s bipartisan bills to support training for infrastructure-related jobs, address teacher shortages, and boost student success and career readiness at community colleges to address workforce shortages and help our economy.  

The bill also:

• Delivers two years of free preschool for every 3 and 4-year-old in America. Preschool in the United States costs about $8,600 per year.
• Extends the expanded Child Tax Credit, giving more than 35 million families a major tax cut to help families pay for necessities like food, housing, and health care. 1.6 million children across Virginia have already benefitted from the expanded CTC, including 249,000 children in the Commonwealth in poverty.
• Ensures that the vast majority of middle-class families will pay less than 7 percent of their income on child care and helps states expand access to high-quality, affordable child care to about 20 million children per year — covering 9 out of 10 families across the country with young children.
• Delivers affordable, high-quality care for older Americans and people with disabilities in their homes, while supporting the workers who provide this care. The Build Back Better bill contains provisions based on Kaine’s Supporting Our Direct Care Workforce and Family Caregivers Act, legislation to meet the growing demand for home and community-based services.
• Helps American seniors access affordable hearing care by expanding Medicare.

This legislation will be fully paid for by making sure that large corporations, millionaires, and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes. Americans earning less than $400,000 per year will not see an increase in taxes.

###