PENNSYLVANIA — After announcing the Build Back Better framework last week, President Biden and the Democrats are hard at work to get this transformational package over the finish line.
President Biden’s framework will bring down costs that have held back families in Pennsylvania for decades by cutting taxes and making child care, home care, education, health care, and housing more affordable. These investments will create good-paying jobs for residents of Pennsylvania, combate climate change and give our kids cleaner air and water.
The Build Back Better framework will deliver for Pennsylvanians’ by:
- Lowering the cost of child care: In Pennsylvania, the average annual cost of a child care center for a toddler is $11,402, meaning that a Pennsylvania family with two young children would on average spend 22% of their income on child care for one year. The framework will enable PA to provide access to child care for 737,791 young children (ages 0-5) per year and ensure these families pay no more than 7% of their income on high-quality child care.
- High-quality preschool at no cost to PA families: Today, only 16% of the 244,279 3- and 4-year-olds in Pennsylvania have access to publicly-funded preschool. The Build Back Better framework will enable PA to expand access to free, high-quality preschool to more than 204,716 children.
- Making the largest effort to combat climate change in American history: From 2010 to 2020, PA experienced 37 extreme weather events, costing up to $10 billion in damages. 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 by 2030—in a way that creates good-paying union jobs, grows domestic industries, and advances environmental justice.
- Reducing housing costs and expanding housing options: 720,000 renters in Pennsylvania are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent, while homeownership remains out of reach for many families. The Build Back Better framework will expand rental assistance for Pennsylvania renters, while also increasing the supply of high-quality housing through the construction and rehabilitation of over 1 million affordable housing units nationwide.
- Expanding health care coverage and lowering costs: The framework will close the Medicaid coverage gap to help millions of Americans gain health insurance, extend through 2025 the American Rescue Plan’s health insurance premium reductions for those who buy coverage on their own, and help older Americans access affordable hearing care by expanding Medicare. In Pennsylvania, that means 122,000 uninsured people will gain coverage and 125,800 will on average save hundreds of dollars per year.
- Supporting families with long-term care needs: The Build Back Better framework will expand access to home- and community-based care to more of Pennsylvania’s senior citizens and disabled citizens, and improve the quality and wages of caregiving jobs.
- Cutting taxes for families and workers: Prior to the pandemic, 13% of children under the age of 18 in Pennsylvania lived in poverty. The Build Back Better framework will bolster financial security and spur economic growth in Pennsylvania by reducing taxes on the middle class and those striving to break into it. The framework will extend Child Tax Credit (CTC) increases of $300/month per child under 6 or $250/month per child ages 6 to 17. This will continue the largest one-year reduction in child poverty in history. And critically, the agreement includes permanent refundability for the Child Tax Credit, meaning that the neediest families will continue to receive the full Child Tax Credit over the long-run. The framework will also provide a tax cut of up to $1,500 in tax cuts for 663,000 low-wage workers in Pennsylvania by extending the American Rescue Plan’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansion.
###