President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion package to expand the nation’s social system and combat climate change would overhaul the nation’s healthcare, tax and education policies.
The White House on Friday released a framework for how the far-reaching law, which still must survive internal Democratic feuding and stiff GOP opposition, would affect Georgians.
The administration said the Build Back Better policy would provide access to child care for about 665,000 young children per year, along with universal pre-school for more than 193,000 additional 3- and 4-year-olds. About 150,000 more Georgia students a year would get access to free school meals.
It would increase maximum Pell Grant awards by $550 for students at public and private colleges and universities, which would go to roughly 200,000 students in Georgia who rely on the program. And 32 community colleges in the state could tap into grants to develop new workforce training programs.
The law would expand federal assistance for roughly 650,000 Georgians who are renting. And it would expand the Medicaid program to cover nearly 550,000 uninsured residents.
It would extend a child tax credit of $300 per month per child under six and provide a tax cut of up to $1,500 annually for low-wage workers in Georgia.
The package must still overcome sharp opposition and strife between warring liberals and moderates in the Democratic caucus. Some on the party’s left flank are upset U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, centrist Democrats, worked to scale back the initial scope of the package.
Republicans, meanwhile, remain staunchly opposed to a package they say would give rise to inflation and supercharge the national debt. With narrow majorities in both chambers, however, Democrats are pushing to secure the package through the reconciliation process.
