House to vote on renewing Affordable Care act subsidies : NPR

Against the wishes of House Speaker Mike Johnson, the House is set to vote Thursday on extending expanded health insurance subsidies that expired late last year.

A three-year extension is expected to pass the House, but it may not make much headway in the Senate. failed in December. But a bipartisan group of senators says they are close to agreement on a compromise bill for subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

While the debate over health care spending consumed much of the oxygen in Congress in the final weeks of 2025, there is now a rush to pass measures to end the subsidies as members of Congress face questions about the direction of US foreign policy after President Trump's actions in Venezuela. That includes a Senate vote expected Thursday on a resolution that would bar U.S. forces from further involvement in military action against Venezuela without congressional authorization.

Thursday's vote is part of a fast start to the new year for lawmakers. Adding to their to-do list is a fast-approaching Jan. 30 deadline for government funding or risk a partial shutdown.

The ultimate race around the speaker over subsidies

Republican leadership for weeks refused to allow a vote on extending the subsidies.

Then, just before the holidays, four swing district Republicans joined with Democrats to force a vote to extend the subsidies for three years through a so-called discharge petition. once a rare legislative tool allows 218 or more ordinary members to bypass the Speaker and force a vote.

A procedural motion Wednesday to call a final House vote won the support of nine Republicans.

But even many supporters acknowledge that a clean three-year extension is unlikely to pass the Senate. It was hoped that success in the House would reinvigorate bipartisan negotiations in the upper chamber, and there are signs that this may happen.

A small bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating this week, with several telling reporters they are close to an agreement.

“We are in the red zone,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, said Wednesday. “But that doesn’t mean landing. That could mean a 95-yard failure.”

The Way Forward in the Senate

Moreno says the new compromise is based on a two-year extension of the agreement. In the second year, patients could choose to place funds in a health savings account instead of government subsidies going to the insurance company.

President Trump has pushed to provide federal funding for health care directly to patients and has repeatedly denounced the subsidies as government handouts to big insurance companies.

The plan would also include income caps, among other changes Republicans have called for. Open enrollment will likely be expanded so that people who dropped their policies due to premium hikes caused by expiring subsidies may have the opportunity to sign up for coverage.

There are still some obstacles to the bipartisan agreement. Some Republicans want more specific language about banning the use of federal funding for abortions.

Trump told House Republicans this week that they may have to be “flexible on this issue.”

Moreover, many Republicans are deeply opposed to increasing subsidies in general, so even if the bipartisan group reaches a compromise, their ultimate fate will remain unclear.

Jumpstart for Congress in 2026

As lawmakers seek consensus on subsidies, questions about the future U.S. role in Venezuela have also taken on new urgency.

The Senate is scheduled to vote Thursday on a resolution that would block military action against Venezuela without congressional approval. The resolution requires a simple majority to pass, but is not expected to reach that threshold.

A similar measure failed last year with the support of two Republicans, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Paul sponsored the latest effort along with three Democrats: Tim Kaine of Virginia, Adam Schiff of California and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.

In addition to voting on health care and Venezuela, lawmakers also face pressure to fund the government ahead of a Jan. 30 deadline.

Congress had already approved annual funding for some federal agencies, but last fall saw a record government shutdown. ended with a continuing resolution this resulted in funding being restored for most departments only in the first month of the year.

Some of these appropriations bills are scheduled to come up for votes in the coming days, but appropriators are still working out the details of bills that cover more controversial areas such as the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is expected to vote Thursday to override two of President Trump's vetoes just before the new year, a rare show of resistance from congressional Republicans. One veto concerns water infrastructure in Colorado, and the other concerns a Native American tribe in Florida.