'Build Back Better' Faces a Lobbying Blitz
President Biden (right) pictured with Colorado Governor Jared Polis (left) before a press conference at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado. Source: Inc.
As Senate and House Democrats prepare to pass the last major piece of President Biden’s agenda ahead of the coming midterm elections in 2022, they have been met with opposition from lobbying groups from all facets of the American economy. The bill, titled the “Build Back Better Bill” (BBBB) is set to include $3.5 trillion in spending over a ten year period that would include changes to policies to combat climate change, increasing healthcare and decreasing the costs of pharmaceuticals, and more and would be paid for by increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy.
Congressional Democrats hold slim majorities in both the House and the Senate. They cannot afford to lose any votes in the Senate, and only two in the House, if they want to pass the BBBB — leaving it in a precarious position. Liberal and moderate Democrats have clashed in recent weeks about how much the BBBB should cost and if it should be passed in tandem with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, or the BIF, which is a $1.5 trillion bill focused on repairing the nation’s physical infrastructure like roads and bridges.
Sensing the divisions in the Democratic party, corporations have begun to lobby Congress to slim down the Build Back Better Bill or stop it completely. Many corporations, like Exxon Mobil, Blackstone Inc., Pfizer, and Disney, are spending millions advertising against the bill and lobbying members of Congress to diminish what they see as changes that would harm their competitiveness in the global economy. Other groups, like the US Chamber of Commerce, paid for advertising to support nine democratic officials who threatened to vote against the BBBB if the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill was not passed before the Build Back Better Bill.
Many companies criticize the wide-ranging aspects of the BBBB, as well as some of the drastic changes that could take place in certain sectors. Pharmaceutical makers stand to lose $700 billion over the next ten years if the bill passes due to its provisions that would allow Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs. Companies are also resistant to how the bill would be financed, as one part of it would be to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5%.
Some moderate Democrats, like Joe Manchin, a Democratic Senator from West Virginia, have criticized the size of the bill and some of the provisions in it. Manchin said that his vote would be a “hard no” if the size of the bill were $3.5 trillion. Progressive Democrats are hoping to find a middle ground on the legislation, but maneuvering the political will of almost every member of Congress to buy in on what is in the bill and when it is passed has proved troublesome.
Many provisions of the bill are immensely popular, even in today’s polarized political climate. 68% of people support raising taxes on wealthy individuals, and 62% support raising the corporate tax, making the bill’s funding popular with most Americans. Provisions in the bill have also proved to be supported by a majority of Americans; for instance, 83% of people support Medicare being able to negotiate the price of drugs. That massive corporations have managed to make the passing of this bill difficult speaks to the outsized role lobbying plays in the legislative process. With the amount of money that corporations budget for lobbying and political activities, politicians risk facing a well-funded challenger in their next election if they were to vote against a corporation’s interest. To pass the Build Back Better Bill in the form that President Biden and many other Democrats want, there will have to be a concerted effort to negotiate within the Democratic party in a space devoid of lobbyists or some of the most impactful changes in the bill could be stripped away.