Four Republicans from swing districts defied House Speaker Mike Johnson to side with the Democrats to sign a discharge petition to force a vote to extend the expanded health care tax credits for the Affordable Care Act.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York, Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania and Rob Bresnahan joined a discharge petition Wednesday sponsored by House Minority Leader to extend the expanded tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace.
This comes as the tax credits–which Joe Biden signed during in 2021 during the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic and which he extended in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act–are set to expire at the end of the month. More than 22 million people who receive their insurance on the marketplace risk seeing their premiums double or triple if the subsidies are not extended.
The House is set to recess at the end of this week. But Jeffries called on the House to stay in session to vote on the measure.
“Mike Johnson should not recess the House of Representatives until we vote on the straightforward extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries told The Independent. “We now have a bipartisan group of members of the House of Representatives who are prepared to ensure that tens of millions of Americans don’t experience dramatically increased health insurance premiums.”
Many of the Republicans on the petition face difficult re-elections in the 2026 midterms. Fitzpatrick and Lawler represent two of the three Republican-held districts that also voted for Kamala Harris.
“This morning I signed the discharge for the clean 3-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credit,” Lawler said in a statement. “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.”
Fitzpatrick and other moderates had led discharge petitions to extend the subsidies with some income caps and other various reforms.
Johnson avoided questions as he walked onto the House floor.
Republican leadership in the House and Senate has adamantly opposed extending the tax credits. The final straw for moderates came when the House Rules Committee rejected amendments by many of the moderates to add an extension of the subsidies to a Republican health care bill that will receive a vote Wednesday.
“Our only request was a Floor vote on this compromise, so that the American People’s voice could be heard on this issue,” he said. That request was rejected.”
Fitzpatrick, one of the only Republicans in the House to oppose the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” said he did not prefer a clean extension but Johnson and Republican leaders forced his hand.
“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,” he said. “Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome.”
Once considered a rare tool, discharge petitions have become increasingly common in the House as a way to pass legislation that House leadership opposes.
Most recently, every Democrat and a handful of Republicans signed onto a discharge petition to force the Department of Justice to release files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But the discharge process triggers a timeline. Once a discharge petition receives 218 signatures, it must ripen for seven legislative days. Then the speaker must call the vote within two legislative days. That would put the timetable for a House vote right around the Christmas holiday.
If the legislation passes, there is not a guarantee that the Senate will take it up, as it would need 60 votes to pass and most Republicans in the Senate oppose extending the tax credits or want restrictions for using the money for abortions or gender-affirming care for transgender people.
