Build Back Better Plan

The Build Back Better Plan or Build Back Better Agenda was a legislative framework proposed by United States president Joe Biden between 2020 and 2021. Generally viewed as ambitious in size and scope, it sought the largest nationwide public investment in social, infrastructural, and environmental programs since the 1930s Great Depression-era policies of the New Deal. The Build Back Better plan was divided into three parts: American Rescue Plan (ARP), a COVID-19 pandemic-relief bill; American Jobs Plan (AJP), a proposal to address long-neglected infrastructure needs and reduce America's contributions to destructive effects of climate change; American Families Plan (AFP), a proposal to fund a variety of social policy initiatives, some of which (e.g., paid parental leave) had never before been enacted nationally in the U.S. The first part was passed as the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and was signed into law in March 2021. The other two parts were reworked into different bills over the course of extensive negotiations. Aspects of the AJP's infrastructure goals were diverted into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in November 2021. Other AJP priorities (e.g., climate change remediation, home health care reform, etc.) were then merged with the AFP to form the Build Back Better Act. The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives but struggled to gain the support of Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona in the evenly divided Senate, with unified Republican opposition. Manchin and Sinema negotiated the reduction of the Build Back Better Act's size, scope, and cost significantly with Biden and Democratic congressional leaders, but Manchin, widely viewed as the key swing vote needed to pass the bill in the Senate, ultimately rejected it, citing unresolved disputes about the short- and long-term costs of the...