For the second time in a week, Colorado U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper is getting credit from fellow lawmakers for helping advance the Democrats’ sweeping climate, health care and tax package, which passed Sunday afternoon.

A Hickenlooper proposal to substitute a new tax on corporate stock buybacks for a different tax provision that was deemed a deal-breaker by U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema led to the Arizona Democrat signing on to the agreement Thursday, giving Democrats the 50 votes they’ll need to begin debate on the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation measure.

According to CNN, which first reported Hickenlooper’s role in helping seal the agreement, Sinema had informed Senate leadership that her support depended on removing a $14 billion tax increase on investment-fund managers, who enjoy a low rate on some income currently classified as “carried interest.” Hickenlooper raised the possibility of replacing it with a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks, which is projected to bring in $73 billion. After Majority Leader Chuck Schumer incorporated the proposal, Sinema announced her support.

Colorado Politics confirmed accounts of Hickenlooper’s part in making the deal happen.

Additionally, Hickenlooper got an OK from economists at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School that the excise tax wouldn’t be inflationary. He’d earlier asked the same experts to review the original legislation, helping secure agreement on the original bill from U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia Democrat who had previously withheld support for larger reconciliation packages, citing fears they could fuel inflation, among other objections.

The legislation is undergoing what Senate insiders call a “Byrd bath,” a painstaking review by the Senate parliamentarian to determine if the bill meets requirements to be considered under the chamber’s reconciliation rules. It’s named after the late U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who wrote the rule that allows certain budget bills to bypass the filibuster.

Hickenlooper drew praise last week for helping keep negotiations with Manchin going, ultimately yielding the $769 billion package dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022″ and described by Hickenlooper as “the most significant piece of climate legislation in U.S. history.”

On Friday morning, Hickenlooper told CNN’s “Inside Politics with John King” that he had been talking earlier in the week with Schumer and other senators, including Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, about another part of the bill when the topic turned to the tax “adjustments” Sinema might need to support the legislation.

“So I suggested some sort of an excise tax on the stock buybacks,” Hickenlooper said, noting that the proposal had “been in play before” but disappeared, even though it wasn’t something he thought Manchin or Sinema opposed.

Hickenlooper said he suggested cutting the previous proposal from a 2% tax “to maybe 1%, to make it more bearable.”

The sprawling legislation is projected to reduce the federal deficit by some $300 billion, though Republican critics scoff at the claim.

Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida on Thursday night took to Twitter to accuse Senate Democrats of “using the inflation crisis they helped (President Biden) create with reckless government spending to justify even more reckless government spending,” adding, “That makes no sense.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated the reflected the legislation passing the U.S. Senate on Aug. 7.