Washington — The House won’t vote this week on an extension to the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium subsidies, which lapse at the end of the year.
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 the attach to a GOP health care plan released last week. The GOP plan does not include an extension.
A vote on the bill is expected Wednesday.
Moderate Republicans are perplexed at the decision not to 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 in the new year for more than 20 million Americans who buy their insurance on Affordable Care Act marketplaces.
House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to shut the door on any amendment votes earlier Tuesday, only to open it slightly after a heated meeting with moderates.
“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 told reporters Tuesday morning.
The Louisiana Republican later said “there’s some ideas on the table that could work.”
Moderate Republicans expressed their frustration throughout the day.
“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” not to 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.
He urged all Democrats to sign on to two bipartisan discharge petitions to force votes on legislation to extend the tax credits for one to two years with reforms. But even if the discharge petitions hit the 218-signature threshold needed to force a vote in the coming days, there’s a waiting period of seven legislative days before a member can call it up to the floor. The House’s last day in session this year is Friday.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, has said that Republicans should offer up the votes on a Democratic discharge petition to extend the tax credits for three years without reforms. It needs to secure the support of four Republicans to force a vote.
GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley of California said he hasn’t ruled out supporting Democrats’ discharge petition.
“We waited until the very end of the year to just kind of hastily throw together some narrow package to try to make it look like something’s being done about health care when this bill is likely not going to become law and it doesn’t address the immediate crisis in front of us, or 22 million people,” he said of the GOP plan.
During Tuesday’s Rules Committee meeting, Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said the only thing worse than an extension without any reforms is no extension at all.
