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Defying their party’s leadership, four House Republicans on Wednesday joined Democrats in signing a rarely successful discharge petition, giving lawmakers the votes needed to force a floor vote on extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
The move hands Democrats a procedural victory and underscores the limits of Speaker Mike Johnson’s control over a deeply divided House GOP conference.
The petition, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., reached the required 218 signatures after four Republicans — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania — signed on Wednesday morning.
If the subsidies expire as scheduled on Dec. 31, insurance premiums are projected to roughly double, on average, for about 22 million Americans who buy coverage through the ACA marketplace.
Moderates revolt under political pressure
All four Republicans represent competitive districts that could determine control of the House in November. Democrats have aggressively targeted them over the looming subsidy lapse, which was enacted in 2021 under President Joe Biden to cap premiums for benchmark plans at 8.5% of income.
Fitzpatrick said Republican leaders left him no alternative after months of failed negotiations.
“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.”
Republican leaders have been caught in a familiar bind: Most GOP lawmakers oppose extending the subsidies, which they label a costly Covid-era expansion of Obamacare, while a small but pivotal bloc of centrists has warned that allowing them to expire would impose politically damaging premium hikes on their constituents.
Johnson presses ahead despite fracture
The revolt came the same day Johnson scheduled a vote on a GOP health care package dubbed the “Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act,” which reflects conservative priorities but leaves ACA subsidies untouched.
The bill would codify Association Health Plans, authorize cost-sharing reduction payments and impose new transparency rules on pharmacy benefit managers. Johnson said negotiations over a possible amendment to extend the ACA credits collapsed over the weekend.
The ACA extension itself is not expected to reach the floor before the Dec. 31 deadline, effectively guaranteeing the subsidies will lapse before any vote occurs.
Under House rules, seven legislative days must pass before a discharged bill can be considered. With lawmakers set to leave Washington after Friday for a two-week recess, the House is unlikely to vote on the measure until mid-January — unless Johnson intervenes to accelerate the process.
Senate roadblock remains
Even if the House ultimately passes the three-year extension, it faces long odds in the Senate. Republicans rejected the proposal just last week, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has dismissed the subsidies as an unsustainable expansion of Obamacare.
“Our views on health care and the Democrat views on health care are very different,” Thune told reporters Tuesday, saying any compromise would require broader reforms beyond a clean extension.
Another blow to Johnson’s authority
Wednesday’s discharge petition marks the latest instance in which Johnson, presiding over a razor-thin 220-213 majority, has been unable to prevent bipartisan coalitions from wresting control of the House floor.
Last month, GOP rebels joined Democrats on a separate discharge petition forcing a vote to release government files related to Jeffrey Epstein. That measure passed overwhelmingly, 427-1, and was swiftly approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump.
“I have not lost control of the House,” Johnson said defensively Wednesday after the ACA petition succeeded.
“We have the smallest majority in U.S. history. These are not normal times,” he said. “When you have a razor-thin margin, as we do, then all the procedures in the book people think are on the table.”
