(WASHINGTON) — A group of moderate House Republicans broke ranks with GOP leadership on Wednesday to force a vote on a clean, three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.
Four Republicans signed onto House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition, giving it the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.
The decision by moderate Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Lawler, Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie to join Democrats comes after the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee on Tuesday night blocked amendments to extend the ACA subsidies from advancing.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has also resisted from allowing an up or down amendment vote on extending the expiring subsidies, which were Democrats’ focal point of the record 43-day government shutdown this fall.
Moderate Republicans who signed onto the petition took aim at House leadership.
Lawler, of New York, said he doesn’t endorse the Democrats’ bill as written,
“…When leadership blocks action entirely, Congress has a responsibility to act. My priority is ensuring Hudson Valley families aren’t caught in the gridlock,” Lawler wrote on X.
“Our only request was a Floor vote on this compromise, so that the American People’s voice could be heard on this issue. That request was rejected,” Pennsylvania’s Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “Then, at the request of House leadership, me and my colleagues filed multiple amendments, and testified at length to those amendments. House leadership then decided to reject every single one of these amendments. As I’ve stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge. Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome.”
What happens next?
The Republican-controlled House will hold vote on a clean three-year extension of the ACA subsidies; however, the vote is not expected to occur until January 2026 at the earliest given the rules for when a discharge petition can hit the floor.
The big question now is how the Senate will respond. The Senate already rejected a clean three-year extension of the subsidies in a pair of dueling health care votes last week, though several Republican senators crossed the aisle to join all Democrats in supporting it.
On Wednesday night, the House will hold a vote at approximately 5:30 p.m. on a narrow Republican health care package that does not address the expiring ACA tax credits.
Johnson needs a simple majority for the bill to pass and can only afford to lose three Republican votes. Democratic leaders are whipping their members against the bill. The vote will be tight for Johnson, who continues to navigate a slim majority.
The House GOP proposal would expand the availability of association health plans and what are known as “CHOICE arrangements;” impose new transparency requirements on pharmacy benefit managers to lower drug costs; and appropriate money for cost-sharing reductions to reduce premiums in the individual market.
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