Hip Hop Caucus Demands More from Biden Administration Following Passing of Historic Inflation Reduction Act

WASHINGTON — Today, Hip Hop Caucus President and CEO Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. issued the following statement in response to President Biden signing the Inflation Reduction Act into law:

“The Inflation Reduction Act is a massive achievement as the largest climate funding stream in American history, and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reach a 2030 benchmark. The Inflation Reduction Act also includes life-changing subsidies to make health insurance more accessible and drug prices more affordable by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices and cap individual medicine prescriptions at $2,000 a year and insulin at $35 for Medicare recipients.

At the same time it expands the gas and oil industry’s ability to establish new pipelines when we should be stopping all new fossil fuel infrastructure. It leaves too many frontline communities suffering under the burden of fossil fuels. It’s a dangerous precedent for the ongoing climate investments we need to make to address this global crisis that disproportionately impacts Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and poor communities in the Gulf and the Arctic. It also unacceptably rolls back the historic debt relief program created from the American Rescue Plan for Black farmers who historically have been disadvantaged.

We continue to call on the Biden Administration to use its authority to declare a climate emergency now that ensures a just transition to an equitable clean energy future.”

About Hip Hop Caucus 

Formed in 2004, the Hip Hop Caucus (HHC) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that leverages Hip Hop culture to encourage young people to participate in the democratic process. Through a collaborative leadership network, HHC addresses core issues affecting underserved communities. HHC programs and campaigns support solution-driven community organizing led by today’s young leaders.

###