Congress live updates as GOP lawmakers join Democrats to force vote on extending health care subsidies

Fearing the potential political blowback of allowing the tax credits to expire, four Republicans joined all Democrats to support the discharge petition to force a vote on a three-year extension. Democrats' bill does not include any reforms that Republicans have pushed for, but some moderates said maintaining the status quo was better than allowing the credits to expire and premiums to soar for their constituents. 

These are the four Republicans who signed the discharge petition:

• Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania
• Mike Lawler of New York
• Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania
• Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania

"I think the only thing worse than a clean extension, without any income limits and any reforms — because it's not a perfect system — the only thing worse than that would be expiration, and I would make that decision," Fitzpatrick said Tuesday night as he unsuccessfully sought a vote on his amendment to extend the subsidies with reforms.

Lawler called last week's Senate failed vote on the Democrats' three-year extension a "messaging exercise" on Tuesday, but ultimately signed the petition anyway. 

"If we agree that there needs to be an extension, if we agree that the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credit would cause a spike in premiums, then we have to come together in a bipartisan way," Lawler told the House Rules Committee on Tuesday night. 

On Wednesday, Lawler said his signature was not an endorsement of Democrats' bill, "but when leadership blocks action entirely, Congress has a responsibility to act." 

Bresnahan said Democrats' discharge petition was the "only way to protect the 28,000 people in my district from higher costs." 

"Doing nothing was not an option, and although this is not a bill I ever intended to support, it is the only option remaining," he wrote. 

Speaking on the Senate floor, Schumer praised the movement on the discharge petition, saying "it shows that the demand by the American people for Congress — the House and the Senate — to extend the ACA premium tax credits is undeniable."

"Yet Republican leaders inside the House and the Senate are making it clear that they are opposed, and will be responsible for health care costs rising through the roof," Schumer said. 

The New York Democrat said "the damage has been done no matter what happens."

"Republicans have made it impossible to prevent many Americans from paying more on their monthly premiums on Jan. 1," he added. "And Republicans can't even say they tried to stop it."

Schumer called the House GOP bill "a right-wing health care sham bill" that doesn't extend the ACA tax credits. 

A discharge petition is a legislative maneuver that allows a majority of members in the House to bring a bill to the floor without the consent of leadership.

In the House, the speaker enjoys broad authority to determine which bills get brought up for a vote, and which don't. A discharge petition is the only way the minority party can force a vote on an issue, if enough members of the majority join with them. 

A report by the Congressional Research Service in 2023 lays out the procedure. Any member can start a petition to "discharge" a bill from a committee and bring it to the floor. Doing so requires 218 signatures. The petition is available for members to sign on the House floor, and the clerk maintains a list of signatories for each active petition online. 

Once a petition reaches 218 signatures, its supporters must wait seven legislative days before notifying the House of their intention to bring up a motion to discharge the bill for a vote. The motion must then be brought up within two legislative days. If the motion is adopted, any member who signed the petition can move to have the underlying bill brought up for a final vote. 

The speaker can move the process along by bringing up the bill himself. Johnson recently did this for the successful discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. Once that discharge petition reached 218 signatories, Johnson fast-tracked a vote on the underlying bill, which passed nearly unanimously. 

The House advanced the rule for the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act in a 213 to 209 vote. The rule vote sets the parameters for debating the bill. 

Next, the House will begin an hour of debate on the bill. A final vote is expected around 5:30 p.m. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune was noncommittal on whether the Senate would take up a bill to extend the ACA subsidies for three years if it passes the House.

"We'll see," Thune told reporters at the Capitol. "We obviously will cross that bridge when we come to it."

The majority leader said he doesn't expect the House to vote on the measure this week. 

The Senate quickly approved a bill to force the release of the Epstein files earlier this year after a discharge petition prompted a vote in the House. But Thune drew a distinction between the Epstein effort and the health care issue Wednesday, telling reporters that  "those are very different issues." Thune noted that the measure came to the Senate after a near unanimous vote in the House, while he predicted that the health care issue would "probably [be a] partisan vote."

Last week, the Senate rejected a three-year clean extension of the ACA tax credits put forward by Democrats. Four Senate Republicans crossed the aisle in favor of advancing the measure. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to hold a vote on Democrats' three-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credits "immediately." Johnson could bypass the seven-day legislative waiting period for a member to bring the discharge petition to the floor, but the GOP leader has been adamantly opposed to an extension. 

"Our bipartisan petition to force a vote on a straightforward extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits now has 218 signatures," the New York Democrat wrote on X. "Mike Johnson should bring the bill to the floor immediately." 

GOP Reps. Robert Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania became the third and fourth Republicans to sign onto Democrats' discharge petition to force a vote on extending the ACA tax credits, bringing the petition to the 218-signature threshold needed to circumvent leadership and bring the bill to floor.

The next actions on the petition remain unclear. Discharge petitions have a waiting period of seven legislative days, and the House is set to leave town later this week for the holidays, meaning a vote wouldn't occur until the new year. But the move puts pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring up a vote on extending the ACA tax credits.

Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican of Washington, announced that he will not seek reelection in 2026. Newhouse was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. 

"After over 25 years of public service, including more than a decade in the House, I am grateful to the Washingtonians who put their faith in me, as well as the colleagues I have served with on both sides of the aisle," Newhouse said in a statement. 

Newhouse, who was first elected in 2014, joins more than two dozen other House GOP members who have announced their retirement or resignations this year, according to a tally from Axios.

Newhouse is one of two GOP members who voted to impeach Mr. Trump and are still in Congress, the other being Rep. David Valadao of California.

Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, became the second member of his party to sign onto Jeffries' discharge petition to force a vote on a three-year extension of the ACA tax credit. Lawler has been one of the GOP members pushing leadership for a vote on extending the subsidies.

GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania became the first Republican to sign onto House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' discharge petition Wednesday morning. With support from all Democrats, the petition needs three more signatures to force a vote on a measure to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years without reforms.

Fitzpatrick, who was among the moderate Republicans who have advocated for an amendment vote on the ACA tax credits, warned during a Rules Committee meeting Tuesday that the only thing worse than a clean extension would be allowing the tax credits to expire without a bridge for the millions of Americans who rely on the subsidies. 

Should the discharge petition receive enough support, it would still arrive too late to force action on the tax credits this year. The maneuver, which would circumvent GOP leadership, requires a waiting period of seven legislative days before a final vote, and the House is set to leave town at the end of the week for the holidays.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that an average of 100,000 fewer people per year from 2027 to 2035 would have health insurance under the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act. 

The legislation would lower gross benchmark premiums by 11% on average through 2035 and reduce the deficit by $35.6 billion through 2035, according to the CBO. 

"That decrease is driven by a reduction in the premium tax credit of $131.1 billion and an increase in outlays for cost-sharing reductions of $91.8 billion, partially offset by $2.6 billion in other effects," according to the estimate. 

An 11th-hour effort by moderate Republicans to put an extension on the floor for a vote failed Tuesday night when the House Rules Committee blocked several of the amendments they were seeking to attach to the health care bill. 

GOP Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York and Nick LaLota of New York appeared before the committee to push for an amendment vote. 

"There will be consequences if these amendments are not made in order. I think the only thing worse than a clean extension without any income limits and any reforms — because it's not a perfect system — the only thing worse than that would be expiration," Fitzpatrick said. 

In a 6 to 4 party-line vote, Republicans on the committee voted to block their consideration. 

GOP moderates clashed with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday over the lack of a plan to address the expiring tax credits.

Moderates are perplexed at the decision to not hold a vote on an extension ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline, and have warned of the political ramifications of allowing insurance premiums to soar for more than 20 million Americans.

"I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bulls--t," Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York told reporters after leaving a GOP conference meeting Tuesday morning. 

Lawler called it a "tremendous mistake" to not address the expiring tax credits. 

"The Democrats want to use this as an issue in the election, and seemingly the Republican leadership is going to allow them to do it. And it's idiotic," he said. 

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said at his weekly news conference that there would not be a vote this week on an extension. The decision was a reversal from Friday, when a leadership aide said an amendment vote would be allowed.

"We looked for a way to try to allow for that pressure-release valve, and it just was not to be. We worked on it all the way through the weekend," Johnson said, adding that ultimately "an agreement wasn't made." 

Later Tuesday, a meeting with moderates and Johnson appeared to get heated, though the speaker downplayed it as "collegial." 

"We're all trying to solve very complicated questions and challenges, and sometimes there's frustration with the process," he said. 

The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act would expand association health plans, in which multiple employers band together to purchase coverage and lower the costs of benefits. It would also fund cost-sharing reduction payments meant to lower premiums for some enrollees of Affordable Care Act exchanges, and require more transparency from pharmacy benefit managers in an effort to lower drug costs. 

House Republican leadership unveiled their plan last Friday.

"Every policy you're going to see in this bill has received a vote in the House under a Republican majority, and every provision has had bipartisan support in the past," a House Republican leadership aide said last week. 

The aide added that there wasn't "any specific coordination" with the Senate on the legislation. There were two failed votes on competing plans in the upper chamber last week.