It looks like the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on whether or not to extend the expiring Obamacare subsidies, after all. On Wednesday, four Republicans – Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07), Rob Bresnahan, (PA-08), and Mike Lawler (NY-17) – signed on to a discharge petition backed by House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) to force a floor vote on the extension.
A discharge petition is the mechanism lawmakers use to override House leaders in order to get legislation in front of the entire chamber for a vote, but it needs the approval of a majority of House members. By backing the Democrat plan, the four GOPers thumbed their noses at Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-04) and gave Jeffries the 218 votes needed to force the vote.
There's long been a stalemate between Republicans and Democrats over whether or not to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that were given new life during the COVID era. Back in 2021, Democrats increased the size of the tax credits, expanded eligibility, and capped premiums as part of a COVID relief package; those modifications were meant to be temporary and were set to expire at the end of 2025.
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Democrats would like a "clean extension" of the expiring credits, but Speaker Johnson declined to advance that measure for a floor vote and, instead, threw his support behind a new health care package that would expand insurance coverage options for small businesses and self-employed Americans.
Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), took to social media to cast doubt on the ultimate success of the "clean extension," noting it had failed in the Senate just last week.
A clean, three-year extension of the Biden COVID bonuses was on the Senate floor last week, and it failed. Under this proposal, people making $500k+ per year would continue to be eligible for what were supposed to be temporary COVID-era subsidies. https://t.co/G6JnQ3dI79
— Ryan Wrasse (@RWrasse) December 17, 2025
For their part, the four Republican defectors maintain overriding Johnson was the right thing to do. Lawler told the media, “Leadership left us no choice. From my perspective, this issue is too important to f*** around with. You have people’s health care at stake, and it requires a vote. Ultimately, this will pass the House, and I bet you there will be a lot more people voting for it than you expect.”
Bresnahan remarked, “I would have preferred to have seen this go through the amendment process. It was incredibly frustrating to see all three different variations of the amendment not make it to the House floor.”
And McKenzie, who appeared with Vice President JD Vance in Pennsylvania on Tuesday to promote the Trump administration's economic policies, said of siding with the Democrats, "I've always supported bipartisan solutions that would bring about healthcare affordability in this country." McKenzie also called for floor votes on two bills that would extend the credits for either one or two years.
The House will go on its Christmas recess later this week, so the vote on extending the Obamacare tax credits likely won't happen until early January.
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