Nine House Republicans buck leaders on healthcare bill

Nine House Republicans They marched against their party leaders Wednesday night to push through a vote on the Democratic-led health care bill.

The support of nine GOP lawmakers played a key role in pushing forward a vote to extend expanded Obamacare subsidies that expired late last year. A vote on the bill itself is now expected Thursday afternoon.

This is a blow to the speaker Mike JohnsonR-La., who has argued for weeks that a majority of House Republicans oppose extending tax subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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But a significant number of moderate Republicans were frustrated that their party leaders in the House and Senate had done little to prevent millions of Americans' insurance premiums from rising.

Four of them subscribed to petition for dismissal filed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., sought last month to force a vote to extend the subsidies for three years over the objections of House GOP leaders.

A petition to discharge is a mechanism for a bill to be considered in the House of Representatives, even if the majority leadership is against it.

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The four lawmakers are Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., and Ryan McKenzie, R-Pa. — were among nine who voted to support Jeffries' petition on Wednesday.

At the time, they criticized leadership in both parties for not earlier working toward a bipartisan solution and said they were left with no choice in the matter.

The other five lawmakers who voted to advance the petition were Reps. Nick LaLota, D-N.Y., Maria Salazar, R-Fla., David Valadao, R-Calif., Max Miller, R-Ohio, and Tom Kean Jr., R-Fla.

The bill is expected to pass the House on Thursday, but it will almost certainly die on a vote. GOP-controlled Senate.

Similar legislation led by Senate Democrats failed reach the required 60-vote threshold to advance in December.

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The vast majority of Republicans believe the subsidies are a relic of the long-broken COVID-era federal health care system. Conservatives have argued that the relatively small percentage of Americans who rely on Obamacare means the extension will do little to ease the rising health care costs facing people across the country.

But a core group of moderates argue that failure to expand a reformed version of these measures will leave millions of Americans facing skyrocketing health care costs this year.

House Republicans passed the health care law in mid-December sought to reduce these costs for a wider range of Americans, but the legislation failed to pass the Senate.