House Rules Committee tanks centrist Republican last-ditch effort to extend Obamacare subsidies

“Letting the credits expire is not a good option, so I just think we need a responsible bridge,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) said earlier Tuesday.

The amendments included Fitzpatrick’s bill, which would extend the subsidies for two years with fraud reforms; Rep. Jen Kiggans’s (R-VA) one-year extension of the credits that includes new income caps and guardrails to crack down on fraud with a budget offset; and Rep. Kevin Kiley’s (R-CA) two-year extension.

Two new proposals were offered as amendments by Rep. Nick LaLota (R-NY), one mirroring Kiggans’s bill and the other mirroring Fitzpatrick’s. However, these would have allowed health insurance premiums as a tax deduction instead of receiving a subsidy upfront.

“I intend to support the underlying bill before us, the Lower Healthcare Premiums for All Americans Act, because it begins to address the structural flaws driving up costs and limiting access in our healthcare system,” LaLota said of the GOP healthcare bill. “Reforms that increase competition, transparency, and accountability are essential if we are serious about lowering costs over the long term. But long-term reform alone is not enough. We also need responsible, temporary solutions for Americans who rely on the Affordable Care Act exchanges today.”

Each of these amendments would have extended open enrollment for purchasing Obamacare plans until March.

Republicans in the House and Senate have been scrambling for months to address the expiring credits, which were passed by Democrats as temporary COVID-19 pandemic relief in 2021 and then renewed until the end of 2025 in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by former President Joe Biden. Without the enhanced subsidies, the average premium prices paid by patients are slated to double by 2026, with early retirees and small business owners facing the highest price hikes. Roughly four million people are projected to lose health insurance coverage entirely.

These centrist lawmakers have been working for weeks to pass a short-term extension of the subsidies, either by forcing a vote or having GOP leadership put the legislation up for a vote, with the latter option being taken off the table on Tuesday morning.

Both Fitzpatrick and Kiggans have filed discharge petitions for their respective bills, meaning if either measure were to reach the necessary 218 signatures, it would force leadership to hold a vote for the bill.

“We are leaving no stone unturned,” Fitzpatrick said before the Rules meeting. “We want to pursue every single path, exhaust every remedy.”

The Tuesday Rules meeting left these lawmakers with little hope of a path forward before the subsidies expire on Dec. 31. The GOP-led health bill is scheduled to be voted on Wednesday before lawmakers leave town Friday for the holiday break.

Support from these centrists, who are pushing for an extension of the subsidies, remains in limbo as they try to work out a deal. This bill is dead on arrival in the upper chamber without any extension of the ACA enhanced subsidies, as it requires Democratic votes to reach the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

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### House GOP Released Buffet-Style Healthcare Proposal as Leadership Looks to Unite Conference

Democratic leadership has refused to throw its support behind either bipartisan discharge petition, as it continuously pushes the three-year extension put forward by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as the only option.

It has 214 Democratic signatures, requiring only four other Republicans to sign onto the petition to force a vote. Support from Democratic leadership could be the key to unlocking a vote on a bill to extend the subsidies if they were to forgo their hard stance on the three-year bill, which has no Republican support as of Tuesday afternoon.

The lawmakers have become increasingly frustrated with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, leading up to his announcement that there will not be a vote in the House on extending the Obamacare subsidies on Tuesday morning. Members leading the charge on the bipartisan resolutions believe the best path forward is to hold a vote and allow the caucus to decide.

The speaker said they were aiming to appease the centrists in their caucus concerned about this issue, but ultimately concluded that “it was just not to be.”

“We worked on it all the way through the weekend, in fact. And in the end, there was not an agreement made,” McCarthy said at the press conference.

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### Why House Republicans Are Increasingly Bucking Leadership by Forcing Votes on Unapproved Bills

At a Democratic press conference on Tuesday, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) told reporters the three-year extension is the “closest path that we have in front of us” and encouraged disgruntled GOP lawmakers to work across the aisle on this issue.

Gabrielle Etzel and Rachel Schilke contributed to this article.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/3919858/house-rules-committee-nixes-last-ditch-effort-extend-obamacare-subsidies/

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