House passes bill to renew health care subsidies with rogue Republican support
In defiance of GOP leadership, 17 Republican lawmakers joined House Democrats to pass a bill to renew expired health care subsidies for the next three years on Thursday. The bill was brought onto the floor through a discharge petition, which allowed representatives to override House Speaker Mike Johnson.
The pandemic-era tax credits for Americans who get coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace originally expired at the end of 2025. The fight over extending these subsidies was the center of the 43-day government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, but eight Democratic senators defected and voted on a continuing resolution without the subsidy extension.
Most Republican lawmakers that voted for the bill aren’t completely on-board. Instead, they argue getting something on the table to amend later is better than nothing. Rep. Mike Lawler of New York said he hopes the Senate will “put forth a reform package that can pass Congress and become law.”
The defecting lawmakers are making it heard that their decision wasn’t taken lightly. “I just want to make this abundantly clear: This is a Democratic piece of legislation. It is absolutely horrific. Now, it is the best alternative to what we have at the moment,” said Rep. Max Miller of Ohio told the Washington Post.
Many of these representatives work in competitive districts, and, ahead of the 2026 midterms, can’t risk the votes of constituents on the ACA marketplace. “Philosophically, I completely disagree with this,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin said to the New York Times. “But I’m not going to leave millions of Americans who truly need health care insurance in the lurch.”
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“House Democrats have made clear that we will find bipartisan common ground with any of our Republican colleagues in order to address the affordability issues that are making life more expensive,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.
The viability of the bill in the Senate is unclear, with a previous bill failing to meet the filibuster threshold. “We’ve had that vote, as you know, already,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. “But we’ll see what happens from the working group, and if they can come up with something that has reforms. And we’ll go from there.”
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