The House will vote on a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies after 218 lawmakers – all Democrats and four Republicans – signed a discharge petition on Wednesday.
The move comes after Speaker Mike Johnson said he would not personally allow a floor vote, saying, “In the end, there was not an agreement,” according to POLITICO.
The subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year as a longer-term solution continues to be debated. Most Democrats have argued that the subsidies must continue to avoid insurance premiums from spiking. Many Republicans have argued that the dependency on subsidies to keep premiums low demonstrates that the Obama-era program is unsustainable.
“This morning I signed the discharge for the clean 3-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credit. While I have been working for a bipartisan compromise with reforms, the failure of leadership to allow a vote on the floor left me with no choice but to sign the Democrats discharge petition,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) posted to X. “With [Brian Fitzpatrick], [Rob Bresnahan] and [Ryan Mackenzie] joining me in signing, it now has 218 signatures.”
“The Speaker should immediately bring it to the floor for an up or down vote and let the House do the work of the American people,” Lawler continued.
Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships
A vote following the petition could occur today if a specific procedural action is taken, but the vote is more likely to happen in January.
“To get this done TODAY, we need to defeat the previous question on the House Floor. And we need them to vote with us to do it,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) posted to X. “To be clear, that vote on my amendment to the rule is the exact same language they already signed on to today.”
“It’s our last chance before Congress goes out of session since the discharge petition they signed takes 7 legislative days to ripen,” the congressman added.
If the House votes to extend the subsidies, it will then go to the Senate.
“Obviously, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said amid news of the discharge petition, according to Semafor. “Even if they have a sufficient number of signatures, I doubt they would vote this week.”
Trump has railed against the Affordable Care Act, suggesting during the government shutdown in November that “the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE.”
“Somebody said I want to extend it for two years. I don’t want to extend it for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all,” Trump said in November, according to ABC News, adding that “some kind of an extension may be necessary to get something else done because the unaffordable care act has been a disaster. It’s a disaster.”
.png)
.png)
