Full Estimates of the House Build Back Better Act
UPDATE 12/13: Since this analysis was published, CBO has issued a correction to its initial estimate of H.R. 5376. Instead of adding $160 billion to deficits over ten years, CBO now estimates the bill will add $158 billion to deficits over ten years.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released cost estimates of each title of the House's Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376). Before interactions, CBO's figures show the bill will add about $750 billion to the deficit over the next five years and about $158 billion over ten years as written.
Based on CBO's scores, we estimate the House’s Build Back Better Act includes over $2.4 trillion of spending increases and tax cuts through 2031 and nearly $2.3 trillion of offsets – though the numbers can vary depending on how certain provisions are classified. Because the legislation includes a number of temporary programs with arbitrary sunsets and expirations, ultimate costs could be much higher. We previously estimated that extending temporary provisions in the bill would double its gross costs to nearly $5 trillion.
The below table updated our previous estimate of the fiscal impact of elements of the legislation.
What's in the Build Back Better Act?
| Policy | Cost/Savings (-) |
|---|---|
| Family Benefits | $585 billion |
| Establish an affordable child care program (6 years) | $270 billion |
| Establish a paid family and medical leave program | $205 billion |
| Provide universal pre-K to all three-and four-year olds (6 years) | $110 billion |
| Climate & Infrastructure | $570 billion |
| Invest in clean energy & climate resilience | $235 billion |
| Establish or expand clean energy & electric tax credits | $190 billion |
| Establish or expand clean fuel & vehicle tax credits | $60 billion |
| Establish or expand other climate-related tax benefits | $75 billion |
| Enact infrastructure & related tax breaks | $10 billion |
| Individual Tax Credits & Cuts | $215 billion |
| Extend Child Tax Credit (CTC) increase to $3,000 ($3,600 for kids under 6) for one year; make CTC fully refundable permanently | $190 billion |
| Extend expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for one year | $15 billion |
| Other individual tax changes | $10 billon |
| Health Care | $340 billion |
| Strengthen Medicaid home- and community-based services | $150 billion |
| Extend expanded Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits & make premium tax credits available to those in Medicaid coverage gap through 2025 | $130 billion |
| Establish Medicare hearing benefit | $35 billion |
| Invest in the health care workforce | $25 billion |
| Other Spending & Tax Cuts | $325 billion |
| Build & support affordable housing | $175 billion |
| Increase higher education & workforce spending | $40 billion |
| Other spending & investments | $110 billion |
| Reduce or Delay TCJA Base Broadening | $280 billion |
| Increase SALT deduction cap to $80,000 through 2025 | $275 billion+ |
| Delay amortization of research & experimentation expenses until 2026 | $5 billion' |
| Enact Immigration Reform | $110 billion |
| Subtotal, Build Back Better Act Spending & Tax Breaks | $2.43 trillion |
| Increase Corporate Taxes | -$830 billion |
| Impose a 15 percent domestic minimum tax on large corporations | -$320 billion |
| Impose a 15 percent global minimum tax & reform international taxation | -$280 billion |
| Impose a 1 percent surcharge on corporate stock buybacks | -$125 billion |
| Enact other corporate tax reforms | -$105 billion |
| Increase Individual Taxes on High Earners | -$640 billion |
| Expand the 3.8 percent Net Investment Income Tax | -$250 billion |
| Impose a 5 percent surtax on income above $10 million & an 8 percent surtax on income above $25 million | -$230 billion |
| Extend and expand limits on deductibility of business losses | -$160 billion |
| Other Revenue | -$180 billion |
| Reduce the tax gap by funding IRS & other measures | -$130 billion* |
| Reinstate superfund taxes on oil & impose methane fee | -$20 billion |
| Expand nicotine taxes | -$10 billion |
| Reform tax treatment of retirement accounts | -$10 billion |
| Other receipts | -$10 billion |
| Health Care | -$325 billion |
| Repeal Trump Administration drug rebate rule | -$145 billion |
| Reform Part D formula, cap drug price growth, & allow targeted drug price negotiations | -$160 billion |
| Reduce DSH payments beyond 2025 | -$20 billion* |
| Establish $80,000 SALT deduction cap from 2026 through 2030 & $10,000 cap in 2031 | -$290 billion+ |
| Subtotal, Build Back Better Act Offsets | -$2.27 trillion |
| Net Deficit Increase, House Build Back Better Act | ~$158 billion |
Sources: Congressional Budget Office, Joint Committee on Taxation, and Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
+The House fully pays for an increase in the SALT deduction cap through 2026 on paper by extending the cap beyond 2026 after most provisions of the TCJA have expired. While this change raises revenue relative to current law, it would substantially increase the cost of extending the TCJA and thus is likely to result in lower revenue collection over time. We nonetheless count the new revenue as an offset in our official tally. Note that if changes to the SALT cap were all counted on the offset side, total gross costs about be roughly $2.13 trillion rather than $2.40 trillion and offsets would be just under $2 trillion.
'Represents the net cost of temporarily delaying the switch to amortization of research and experimentation expenses – the policy costs $126 billion through 2025.
*DSH reductions through 2025 are subtracted against the ACA expansion.
You can read more details on the specific estimates here. Separately, we've tallied the CBO score by bill title here.
Read more options and analyses on our Reconciliation Resources page.
