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The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt\/States Newsroom)<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Republican leaders in the U.S. House will face a floor vote in early 2026 on Democrats\u2019 plan to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits for three more years, after passing their own legislation Wednesday night that has little chance of a future in the Senate and does not address the tax credits.<\/p>\n
The House vote on that legislation will be required after a handful of moderate Republicans signed on to a discharge petition Wednesday morning. Their dissent with leadership sent a strong signal they are frustrated with the majority\u2019s policies and the rising cost of health care for their constituents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said after a morning vote series on the floor, where he was seen in a heated exchange with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, that the two \u201cjust had some intense fellowship\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s all good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawler is one of the four centrist Republicans who signed the discharge petition, putting it over the threshold of 218 to force a vote on the legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working through very complex issues as we do here all the time,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cEverybody\u2019s working towards ideas \u2014 we\u2019re keeping the productive conversation going.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The speaker also mounted his own defense, saying he has \u201cnot lost control of the House.\u201d<\/p>\n
That chamber has seen chaos and intraparty divides in the aftermath of the government shutdown, when Johnson opted to send lawmakers home for nearly two months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the smallest majority in U.S. history,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThese are not normal times \u2014 there are processes and procedures in the House that are less frequently used when there are larger majorities, and when you have the luxury of having 10 or 15 people who disagree on something, you don\u2019t have to deal with it, but when you have a razor-thin margin, as we do, then all the procedures in the book people think are on the table, and that\u2019s the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
House debate on Republican leaders\u2019 health care bill later in the day was largely along party lines, with members of both parties talking nearly as much about the Affordable Care Act as they did about the policy in the new legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said he believes that law, enacted during President Barack Obama\u2019s first term, \u201chas proven to be unaffordable and unsustainable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guthrie rebuked Democrats for approving the enhanced ACA marketplace tax credits during the coronavirus pandemic and scheduling them to expire at the end of this year, leading to the current deadlock in Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocrats leveraged a public health emergency to shovel hundreds of billions of dollars to big health insurance plans to mask the risk of rising unaffordability of coverage,\u201d Guthrie said.<\/p>\n
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., urged Johnson to put the three-year ACA extension bill up for a vote this week, instead of in the new year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublicans need to bring the Affordable Care Act tax credit extension bill to the floor today,\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cUnder no circumstances should we leave this Capitol this week, before voting on an extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credit bill that we know will pass.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
California Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley, one of the centrists looking for bipartisan solutions on the expiring tax credits, expressed dismay at how debate on health care costs has been handled during the past few months by leaders in both political parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole issue encapsulates what is wrong with this institution, where party leaders focus most of their time and energy on trying to blame problems on the other side rather than trying to solve those problems,\u201d Kiley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The House Republican bill, he said, is \u201cextremely modest and it has no chance of becoming law because it was hastily thrown together without, apparently, any bipartisan input when bipartisan support is necessary to pass any measure like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are we supposed to tell these folks? \u2018Oh, don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s Obama\u2019s fault.\u2019 Or, \u2018Oh no don\u2019t worry, we did a show vote on this Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.\u2019 Is that going to be any consolation?\u201d Kiley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone called the House GOP bill a \u201csham\u201d and said without a vote to extend the expiring ACA tax credits millions of Americans will have to decide if they can afford health insurance coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will see prices double, triple and even quadruple,\u201d Pallone said. \u201cIt will leave millions with the difficult decision of going without coverage because they simply cannot afford rising costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The House voted\u00a0216-211<\/a> to approve\u00a0the Republican health care bill,<\/a> sending it to the Senate, where it\u2019s highly unlikely it would get the bipartisan support needed to advance without significant revision.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said earlier in the day he hadn\u2019t yet decided whether to put the House Democrats\u2019 bill on the floor if it is passed and arrives.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWell, we\u2019ll see. I mean, we obviously will cross that bridge when we come to it,\u201d Thune said. \u201cEven if they have a sufficient number of signatures, I doubt they vote on it this week.\u201d<\/p>\n Thune said the discharge petition on the three-year ACA tax credits extension is far different from the discharge petition that forced a House floor vote on a bill to require the release of the Epstein files. Files related to\u00a0Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 awaiting federal trial on sex trafficking charges, have become a target of Congress and victims in recent months.<\/p>\n \u201cThat came over here pretty much unanimously, 427 to 1,\u201d Thune said.\u00a0 The Senate\u00a0voted earlier this month<\/a> on Democrats\u2019 three-year ACA tax credits legislation, a move that Thune agreed to in order to get enough Democratic votes to end the government shutdown. That bill, which is identical to the House version, was unable to get the 60 votes needed to advance on a 51-48 vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both chambers are set to leave Capitol Hill later this week for their two-week winter break and won\u2019t return to work until the week of Jan. 5.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said she sees the House discharge petition reaching the 218-signature threshold as \u201cconstructive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The New Hampshire Democrat said \u201cbipartisan, bicameral talks continue that are also constructive, so hopefully we can see some movement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Though she is \u201chopeful\u201d for a deal in January, Shaheen said \u201cobviously, there\u2019s a lot that needs to happen in order to get something done, but people need relief,\u201d adding that \u201cpeople in both houses and on both sides of the aisle are hearing from constituents that they want to see something done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley \u2014 one of\u00a0four Republicans<\/a> who voted with Democrats to advance the three-year extension plan \u2014 reiterated his calls for lawmakers to take action to address the looming premium spikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just think we have to do something on the cost of premiums, and I\u2019m not locked into any one thing,\u201d he said, acknowledging that he voted for both Democrats\u2019 proposal and his GOP colleagues\u2019 alternative bill. That effort also failed, at\u00a051-48<\/a>, to garner the 60 votes needed to move forward.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, advance any solution \u2014 that\u2019s my view, but what I think we should not do is just sit back and say, \u2018Well, you know, good luck. We wish you all the best.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The House Republican bill, which Johnson\u00a0released Friday evening<\/a>, doesn\u2019t extend the enhanced ACA marketplace tax credits.<\/p>\n It would require Pharmacy Benefit Managers \u201cto provide employers with detailed data on prescription drug spending, rebates, spread pricing, and formulary decisions\u2014empowering plans and workers with the transparency they deserve,\u201d according to a summary in Johnson\u2019s release.\u00a0<\/p>\n Starting in 2027, the legislation would appropriate funding for cost sharing reduction payments that the summary said would reduce health insurance premiums and stabilize the individual market.\u00a0<\/p>\nSenate approach<\/h4>\n
\u201cAnd my assumption is this discharge petition is going to be a very, probably, partisan vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\u2018We have to do something\u2019\u00a0<\/h4>\n
Frustration breaks through<\/h4>\n