LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Lawmakers cast votes on a Republican-led health care plan but extending enhanced health care subsidies was not part of it. A small group of Republicans joined with Democrats to force a vote on that issue. In a few minutes, we will hear from one of those Republicans, as well as one of the Democrats who is trying to work for a bipartisan fix. But first?
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
More than 20 million Americans rely on the subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the month. In a rebuke of party leadership, a handful of Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote at some point on a three-year extension of those subsidies.
FADEL: Joining us to talk through this is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt. Hi, Barbara.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: OK, so Republicans have been promising for weeks that they have plans to fix the health care system. But it doesn't sound like they agree on what exactly that entails. What happened this week?
SPRUNT: Well, centrist Republicans have been pushing for leadership to let them have an amendment vote to extend those subsidies. And there was a lot of back-and-forth on this. And leadership ultimately said, nope, you're not getting it. So the group of swing district Republicans had a choice, which was either go home for the holidays with no vote on the amendment that they had wanted to bring or vote alongside Democrats who launched what's known as a discharge petition, which can bypass leadership and force a vote, in this case, on extending the subsidies for three years. And that's exactly what this small group of Republicans did.
FADEL: And who were they?
SPRUNT: Well, the group is three congressmen from Pennsylvania - Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie - along with Mike Lawler of New York. Worth noting, these are competitive districts. They'll be important next year in the midterms as we figure out who's going to control the House.
FADEL: Yeah.
SPRUNT: And these four votes were critical because they got Democrats to the magic 218 number of signatures that's required to force a vote.
FADEL: What's the timeline for this forced vote?
SPRUNT: Well, under House rules, there's a waiting period. The speaker could choose to move the vote sooner, as soon as today. But if he doesn't, the vote wouldn't happen until next month because lawmakers are leaving at the end of this week for the holidays. And then of course, the bigger picture, we have to consider what kind of future this could have in the Senate. Just last week, four Republican senators voted to advance a three-year extension. It did not clear the 60-vote threshold that it needs to pass there. So what I'm watching is, come January, does that shift?
FADEL: Does all of this say something bigger about the Republican Party here?
SPRUNT: I think so. I mean, I think if you didn't already know that the midterms were next year, this would be a clue. Members are acutely aware of what's important to their constituents, to their district, and in this case, concern about what these premiums will look like for folks back home if the subsidies are not extended. And so there is, I think, a disconnect between what this group feels will be a big issue for their voters and how they want to address it versus how leadership is approaching it.
FADEL: And what does that mean for House Speaker Mike Johnson?
SPRUNT: Well, it means more headaches, something that he's used to this year trying to unite a conference that has a very narrow majority. And what that has led to lately has been these discharge petitions. Last month, we had a similar situation where a handful of Republicans rebelled against leadership. Sound familiar? Teamed up with Democrats to force a vote, in that case, on releasing the Epstein files. So I think this is just another example of the growing willingness of the conference to buck leadership on issues that matter to them and their constituents.
FADEL: NPR's Barbara Sprunt. Thank you, Barbara.
SPRUNT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
