Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) voted to advance the Build Back Better Act to meet the urgent needs of Massachusetts families by creating jobs, cutting taxes, and lowering costs.

“Today’s vote for President Biden’s Build Back Better Act moves us one step closer to delivering the tools and resources working families need to return to work in good-paying jobs knowing they have the support necessary to provide for their loved ones,” said Congresswoman Trahan. “Together with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Build Back Better Act’s historic investments in affordable health care, cheaper prescription drugs, accessible child care, stronger educational opportunities, and bold action to address the climate crisis will improve the lives of families across the Third District. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to get this critically important legislation across the finish line and shorten our road to recovery from the pandemic.”

The Build Back Better Act will reduce costs that have long been a barrier for families working to succeed financially in Massachusetts by cutting taxes and making health care, child care, home care, education, and housing more affordable and attainable. Through these once-in-a-generation investments, working parents, especially working mothers, will be able to return to the workforce, children will have new learning opportunities, and the Commonwealth’s economy will grow for years to come.

Specifically, the legislation will deliver for Third District residents and all who call the Bay State home through investments in:

Quality, Affordable, and Accessible Health Care:

To ensure that Massachusetts residents facing illness never have to worry about how to afford treatment, the Build Back Better Act:

• Closes the Medicaid coverage gap to help millions of Americans gain health insurance;
• Extends the American Rescue Plan’s health insurance premium reductions for individuals who buy their own coverage through 2025;
• Expands Medicare to help older adults afford hearing care;
• Prioritizes children’s and maternal health by permanently extending the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and providing 12 months of postpartum coverage to women enrolled in CHIP;
• Makes additional investments in improving maternal health outcomes by ensuring that all pregnant women on Medicaid keep their health insurance for the first year postpartum and reducing inequities in maternal health outcomes.

In the Commonwealth, 19,000 uninsured people will gain coverage under these provisions and more than 46,000 individuals will save hundreds of dollars each year on average.

Reduce Prescription Drug Costs:

To help families in the Commonwealth struggling with the soaring costs of lifesaving medications, the Build Back Better Act:

• Finally gives Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for some of the most commonly used prescription drugs, and it passes those savings onto taxpayers and non-Medicaid recipients;
• Lowers the price of insulin so no American with diabetes ever pays more than $35 a month for the medication they need to live;
• Caps out-of-pocket costs for seniors who currently pay thousands of dollars each year for their medications, especially those with serious health conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis, and arthritis. This provision ends that burden by ensuring seniors never pay more than $2,000 a year for prescriptions under Medicare Part D;
• Puts an end to runaway price increases caused by Big Pharma companies upping their drug prices to boost their profits.

Under the insulin provision of the Build Back Better Act alone, nearly 500,000 Massachusetts residents living with diabetes would never pay more than $420 per year for this lifesaving medication.

Massachusetts River and Toxic Chemical Clean Up:

Communities along the Merrimack River have long been forced to contend with combined sewage overflows (CSOs) following heavy rainstorms that dump millions of gallons of raw sewage into the river each year. Despite efforts to combat the issue, robust federal funding is necessary to prevent future discharges and clean up the river. At the same time, communities are working to protect their first responders from unnecessary exposure to harmful PFAS chemicals. The Build Back Better Act bolsters those efforts by:

• Allocating $500 million to upgrade sewage systems and prevent CSOs, on top of the $1.4 billion included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package;
• Prioritizing $1.35 billion of the total CSO funding across both packages for underserved communities like those along the Merrimack River and increasing the federal cost share to 100 percent for the first time, both of which were requested by Trahan;
• Investing $850 million for personal protective firefighting equipment and firefighting foam that does not contain perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl substances, a provision that Trahan advocated for alongside Congressman James P. McGovern (MA-02).

Child Care and Early Education:

Child care has emerged as a major strain for Massachusetts families who face an average annual cost of $19,616 for child care for just one toddler. Further, less than 1 in 5 three- and four-year-olds in Massachusetts have access to publicly funded preschool, and non-publicly funded Pre-K costs parents an average of $8,600 per year. The lack of affordable child care and early education options has made it difficult for working parents, especially working mothers, to return to the workforce in full, contributing to an 18.7 percent gender gap in workforce participation between mothers and fathers in the Commonwealth. To expand access to quality affordable child care and early education, the Build Back Better Act:

• Limits child care costs to no more than 7% of income for families earning up to 250% of state median income;
• Establishes universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, expanding access to free, high-quality Pre-K for more than 6 million children;
• Extends the American Rescue Plan’s wildly successful expanded Child Tax Credit through 2022, ensuring that 35 million American households will continue receiving monthly payments that have overwhelmingly been used for child care, school expenses, food, and other necessities.

The child care provision will enable Massachusetts to provide care for 367,530 young children under the age of five from families earning less than 2.5 times the state median income (approximately $313,300 for a family of four). The universal Pre-K provision will expand access to free, publicly funded preschool to more than 139,529 3- and 4-year-olds in the Commonwealth and increase the quality of preschool for children who are already enrolled. Finally, the extension of the Child Tax Credit payments will ensure that the 665,000 Massachusetts families who received payments in October, including 83,000 in the Third District alone, will continue receiving that monthly boost through 2022.

Investing in Children and Education:

The COVID-19 pandemic created and exacerbated many problems in children’s ability to continue their education in the classroom and at home. The digital divide caused learning losses that educators have spent months working to overcome, while soaring costs of higher education have prevented many high school graduates from pursuing even a 2-year degree. The Build Back Better Act:

• Bridges the digital divide by getting vulnerable families connected to the Internet and providing them with devices like laptops and tablets to do schoolwork from home;
• Expands access to free school meals to food insecure students and provides them with resources to purchase food over the summer;
• Increases the maximum Pell Grant awards for students at public and private non-profit institutions to unlock the opportunities of an education beyond high school.

Under these provisions alone, an additional 121,000 students in the Commonwealth will gain access to free school meals to stay fed while they’re at school and 467,713 students will receive financial assistance to purchase food during the summer. Additionally, 96,025 Massachusetts students who rely on Pell Grants will benefit from the increased investments in the legislation.

Combating Climate Change:

From 2010 to 2020, Massachusetts experienced 14 extreme weather events, costing up to $5 billion in physical damages alone. As the climate crisis continues to worsen, storms are increasing in severity and frequency. To combat the growing threat of climate change and finally invest in clean energy, the Build Back Better Act:

• Establishes a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund to invest $29 billion in nonprofit, state, and local climate finance institutions that support the rapid deployment of low- and zero-emission technologies, including zero-emission vehicle supply equipment;
• Allocates $2.9 billion to create a 21st Century energy grid capable of ensuring the reliable delivery of clean energy throughout the United States;
• Provides the investments necessary to replace heavy-duty vehicles like school buses with zero emission vehicles through a new EPA grant program and support the development of an electric vehicle charging network and hydrogen fueling infrastructure to assist the transition to zero emissions vehicles;
• Allots $325 million through a milestone-based fusion energy development program to further support the efforts of organizations like Commonwealth Fusion Systems working to make fusion a viable, lucrative, and sustainable commercial energy source;
• Invests in resilience efforts to address extreme weather and legacy pollution in communities, and establishes a Civilian Climate Corps.

The Build Back Better framework will set the United States on course to meet its climate targets – a 50-52% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030 – in a way that creates good-paying union jobs, grows domestic industries, and advances environmental justice.

Keeping Families Housed and Safe:

As Massachusetts home prices continue to climb, the pandemic has forced far too many working families to live in fear of covering their next rent or mortgage payment. The American Rescue Plan made considerable progress in keeping people in their homes, but more must be done to ensure families can keep a roof over their heads and stay safe. The Build Back Better Act:

• Provides additional rental assistance beyond the American Rescue Plan;
• Increases the supply of high-quality housing through the construction and rehabilitation of over 1 million affordable housing units nationwide;
• Includes one of the largest investments in down payment assistance in history, enabling more first-generation homebuyers to purchase their first home;
• Expands access to home- and community-based care to more of Massachusetts’ senior and disabled citizens;
• Makes historic investments in Next Generation 9-1-1 services that will make emergency services more accessible, effective, and resilient.

478,000 renters in Massachusetts are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent, while homeownership remains out of reach for many families. These investments will be key to lightening that burden and keeping families housed.

Wringing Out Lessons Learned from COVID-19 and Preparing Massachusetts for Future Pandemics:

During an August roundtable at Lowell General Hospital, Trahan and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra heard firsthand accounts from frontline health care workers about the wear and tear the pandemic has had on them. They warned that without federal investments in the nation’s health care workforce, a mass exodus of frontline workers could ensue. To prevent that from happening and ensure that the United States is never caught flat-footed by a pandemic again, the Build Back Better Act:

• Invests $7 billion in public health infrastructure improvements;
• Provides more than $9.5 billion to shore up the critical health care workforce, including providing funding specifically for nursing schools, medical schools, and urgently important teaching health centers like the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center;
• Follows through on Trahan’s request as a Co-Founder of the Pandemic Preparedness Caucus to provide robust funding for pandemic preparedness by including $10 billion in targeted investments to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile, provide critical resources to improve capacity at public health departments, strengthen supply chains, support domestic and global manufacturing of vaccines, bolster biosecurity, and invest in therapeutics.

Health facilities and public health departments across the Commonwealth will be eligible for funding through these programs, which are designed to ensure that health care workers have the training, resources, and facilities necessary to prioritize public health well into the 21^st Century. Teaching health centers like Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, the first in the nation, would be eligible for additional funding to support efforts to train the next generation of physicians who understand the needs of vulnerable communities.

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