PRESS RELEASE: LANDMARK IRA LAW CELEBRATED ON ITS 1ST ANNIVERSARY FOR REAL PROGRESS ON REDUCING RX DRUG PRICES AND ADDRESSING CLIMATE WHILE CREATING NEW JOBS & RESTORING TAX FAIRNESS

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For Immediate Release
August 16,2023
Contact: Gary Zuckett; garyz@wvcag.org; 304-437-3701

LANDMARK IRA LAW CELEBRATED ON ITS 1 ST
ANNIVERSARY FOR REAL PROGRESS ON REDUCING RX
DRUG PRICES AND ADDRESSING CLIMATE WHILE
CREATING NEW JOBS
& RESTORING TAX FAIRNESS

(CHARLESTON, WV) – Local labor, healthcare, energy, and economic leaders came
together on Wednesday, August 16, 2023 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the
signing of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Video of full comments here:
https://www.facebook.com/WVCAG/videos/1814596602328875 or https://youtu.be/sAxuys8igW0.

Community Organization Leaders pose with a banner that reads “Happy Anniversary to the IRA!” From left to right: Eve-Marcum Atkinson, WV Citizen Action Group Director of Operations and Healthcare Programs; Brandi Reece, Coordinator for the WV New Jobs Coalition; Gary Zuckett, Executive Director of WV Citizen Action Group; Ellen Allen, Executive Director of West Virginians for Affordable Healthcare; and Zach Shrewsbury, Organizer for Common Defense.

Ellen Allen, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care
“Healthcare lies at the heart of the Inflation Reduction Act. Healthy communities have healthy economies and we know this can help get people back into the labor force and stay in the labor force.”

Josh Sword, WV AFL-CIO
“Thanks to the IRA working families will no longer pay a higher tax rate than giant corporations raking in more than $1 billion or more in profit each year. The IRA is also a jobs bill. An analysis by the Labor Energy Partnership, a shared commitment of the AFL-CIO and Energy Futures Initiative found the bill will add nearly 1.5 million jobs and increase per capita personal income by nearly $4k. [..] This is a momentous step forward but work remains.”

Zach Shrewsbury, WV New Jobs Coalition
“We here in West Virginia stand on a golden opportunity in our home to make our state and West Virginians even more resilient, independent, and prosperous […] Future industry is here, so let’s seize it in West Virginia.”

Steve Crum, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
“There’s potential for 1,000 jobs on one project alone, thanks to the IRA. All these jobs with the IRA money have labor provisions, [..] they have to pay a prevailing wage and they have to use apprentice labor. This allows us to bring more people, more diverse people into the program.
We see tremendous opportunity and growth all over the state because of the IRA. It’s really exciting for me, my first year in 40 years that I see this kind of opportunity to be created and will be sustained for quite a while.”

Gary Zuckett, West Virginia Citizen Action Group
“WV is one of the states that stands to benefit the most from the Inflation Reduction Act […] There’s a lot to celebrate here as we work to implement this long-term vision of the Inflation Reduction Act that’s going to go into the next decade, but we also need to protect this from the greedy drug corporations and Wall Street financiers and their allies in Congress who are already are trying to roll back some of these provisions, to undo the good work that’s been done.

We must work hard to push back on these lawsuits and other efforts in Congress to repeal the law, to stop implementation, and to chip away at the progress made. Then we can finally get the lower costs and the fair prices we need to take care of our families and to move forward in creating new jobs by addressing our burgeoning climate emergency.”

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