well President Biden today celebrated the first anniversary of signing his administration's signature clean energy legislation the inflation reduction act the climate-focused bill provides billions of dollars in tax credits to help produce renewable energy and the jobs that go with it but it also put caps on prescription drugs like insulin and lowered the cost of monthly health insurance premiums the administration is still trying to get the word out to Americans about exactly how the legislation affects them New Jersey congressman Frank pallone was among those who supported the bill and joins me now Congressman good to see you thanks for joining me talk to me first about what you think people still don't know about the Crux of this legislation here we are one year later you stood next to the president when he signed it well I think people don't necessarily pay attention right I mean they go about their daily lives um maybe they've listened to the news at night uh but they and also a lot of times they they don't necessarily think Congress is really doing anything which is unfortunate because we actually did a lot with the inflation reduction act uh but they they certainly care about the issues I mean obviously they care a lot about uh affordability and prescription drugs or you know have one Sky High which is why we need to lower prices and make them more affordable and they clearly care about uh the weather what's happening I mean it's the hottest year on record all kinds of droughts witness what happened in Maui with the wildfires so I think that you just have to keep pointing out look at these are real problems that that we as Democrats in the inflation reduction act that tried to correct even the inflation even the name of the inflation reduction act doesn't seem to have anything much to do with climate right perhaps that's where there's some some misconnection there within the public maybe although with inflation has gone down too so the name is you know certainly apt in terms of its impact so but in terms of How It's helped the economy I mean we talk about prescription drug prices that's something that you've been looking at in fact are going to be at an event tomorrow at Rutgers um looking at the ways that that impacts daily lives how is this legislation changed that and and affected the economy as well well with regard to seniors in Medicare right the inflation reduction act uh for the first time has the federal government implement or negotiate prices and those it starts out with 10 drugs beginning this September and then it goes to 20 and I have legislation that would increase it to 50. uh and basically what that means is the federal government uses the power uh because we have so many seniors under Medicare uh to negotiate lower prices and as you know sometimes prices in other countries are three four five times as much because they do negotiate with the drug companies and then it also has a 35 cap on insulin for seniors that's already had the impact not only for seniors but a lot of the companies that make insulin now have established a 35 cap for everyone and then we also have an inflation rebate where the drug companies can't raise prices more than inflation that has kicked in and saved you know millions of dollars some of that money goes back in rebates to reduce prices at the at the drug counter and then in 2025 there's going to be a two thousand dollar cap on how much seniors can spend out of pocket for their prescription drugs annually so there are a lot of things happening congressman Frank pallone thank you so much for your time we appreciate it all right Brianna thanks again take care [Music] [Music]