WASHINGTON — Rebelling against their leaders, four House Republicans on Wednesday signed onto a “discharge petition,” giving Democrats the 218 signatures needed to force a vote on a three-year extension of the Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire for millions of Americans on Dec. 31.
If the enhanced premium tax credits expire, as is expected, insurance costs are projected to double, on average, for about 22 million Americans who get their coverage through Obamacare.
The discharge petition, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has all 214 Democrats on board.
The four Republicans who signed on Wednesday morning and pushed it to 218 were Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa.
All four represent competitive districts that could make or break the GOP’s narrow House majority in November. Democrats have been slamming each of them as complicit in the impending lapse of the funding, which first passed in 2021 under President Joe Biden in a bid to cap premiums for “benchmark” plans at 8.5% of income.
Fitzpatrick said his hand was forced by the refusal of Republican leadership to “compromise” after he attempted “for months” to offer ideas and amendments.
“House leadership then decided to reject every single one of these amendments,” Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “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.”
The issue has caught Republican leaders in a rare predicament: The vast majority of GOP lawmakers want the enhanced ACA tax credits to expire on schedule, but a small group favors an extension to prevent sharp premium hikes.
The revolt among the centrist lawmakers comes on the same day House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is calling a vote on a GOP bill to implement a series of policies popular on the right, called the “Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.” It would codify Association Health Plans, authorize cost-sharing reduction payments and seek transparency for pharmacy benefit managers.
Johnson had negotiated with the Republicans who favor an ACA extension on an amendment, but that was jettisoned after talks collapsed over the weekend, he told reporters Tuesday, while projecting that his bill would still pass the House.
The ACA funding bill is not expected to come to the floor before the Dec. 31 deadline, meaning the subsidies will lapse for an estimated 22 million people who get their health care insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Under House rules, seven legislative days need to lapse before a bill, discharged by such a petition, comes to the floor. The House, however, is only scheduled to be in session until Friday, before lawmakers head home for a two-week holiday recess.
The House is set to return to Washington on Jan. 6, meaning the vote on the three-year extension will likely be held in the second week of that month — unless Johnson attempts to expedite it to the floor.
And if it does pass the House, it still faces hurdles in the Senate, where Republicans rejected the three-year funding extension on the floor just last week. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has slammed the Covid-era ACA subsidies and said he favors a broader overhaul, not just an extension of those funds.
“Our views on health care and the Democrat views on health care are very different, and I think that’s a difficult challenge that we have to figure out how to overcome,” Thune told reporters Tuesday. “But if they’re willing to accept changes that actually would put more power and control and resources in the hands of the American people and less of that in the pockets of the insurance companies, I think there’s a path forward.”
Wednesday’s successful discharge petition marks yet another example of Speaker Johnson — presiding over a razor-thin 220-213 majority — losing control over what happens on the House floor.
Just last month, a handful of GOP rebels bucked Johnson and teamed up with Democrats on a discharge petition, forcing a vote to release all of the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein. The final tally was 427-1 and the Senate, by unanimous consent, quickly forwarded the bill to President Donald Trump, who signed it into law.
