Congress
Capitol agenda: House GOP at the Obamacare cliff
House Republicans are set to mark their final session week of 2025 with a muddled health care message that’s poised to have a big impact — a nationwide spike in insurance costs after Obamacare subsidies expire in less than three weeks.
— The plan: GOP leaders are eyeing a Wednesday vote on a package of conservative-friendly health policies they released last Friday (Pro subscribers can read more of the specifics here).
The proposal — a narrowly-focused attempt at striking consensus in a divided GOP conference — doesn’t include an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits that lapse on Dec. 31. Instead, leadership is expected to throw a bone to anxious rank-and-file members by giving them the chance to vote on an amendment that would continue the subsidies — a vote that’s almost guaranteed to fail.
“I expect people are going to have an opportunity to vote their conscience and then go defend their votes back home like we always do,” House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said.
— Mods scramble: Moderate Republicans in the House and Senate are privately strategizing about how to pull off an unlikely last-minute deal to avert a health care price shock that could have big ramifications for the midterms. A number of vulnerable Republicans have argued they will lose their seats if the ACA subsidies aren’t extended.
The Obamacare amendment that GOP moderates are set to offer this week is expected to be a two-year extension of the subsidies with an income cap and other changes — a plan modeled after a proposal from Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine).
House Democratic leaders are waiting to see what the final amendment looks like. They could try to tank the bill by helping adopt the amendment, though many Democrats have criticized the Fitzpatrick-Golden plan.
— More unhappy campers: Key GOP hard-liners are upset that Republican leaders are allowing an ACA vote at all, and they know they have leverage. They’re pushing for more restrictive language in the Obamacare amendment and want commitments on conservative policy wins in health legislation early next year, in exchange for letting the bill proceed. To shore up support with conservatives, GOP leaders are pairing the health care package with two bills that would limit transgender surgeries for minors.
— Why it matters for the midterms: This week’s vote is clear evidence that the GOP is struggling to define an easily digestible message on health care costs heading into next year’s elections, as Democrats stay mostly unified around extending the ACA subsidies.
Every Senate Democrat voted to advance an Obamacare tax credit extension last week, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has managed to keep most of his members from endorsing compromise proposals from purple-district Republicans.
House GOP leaders have been unwilling to rethink a 15-year-old party message that Obamacare is a costly disaster, despite growing anxiety from their members about the electoral consequences.
The saga has left many House Republicans frustrated even if they share concerns about the cost of the subsidies and the legacy of the ACA.
“A lot of people are receiving this health care — they don’t need the rug pulled out from under them,” Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) told Blue Light News last week. “Definitely should have been done a ways back, we could say, because of the shutdown. But we’ve got to do everything we can and then do more.”
“I don’t see how we just leave things in limbo.”
What else we’re watching:
— House to take up permitting: House GOP leaders are eyeing a Thursday morning vote on bipartisan legislation that would aim to speed up energy project permitting. Republicans are working to shore up their votes, with resistant hard-liners arguing the bill would undermine President Donald Trump’s authority to block offshore wind energy projects.
— Thune’s busy week: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is looking to wrap the NDAA and confirm dozens of nominees before Congress leaves town for the holidays. Potential bonus items include some appropriations action and a war powers vote.
Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Nicholas Wu and Josh Siegel contributed to this report.
Rep. Max Miller issued a subpoena to his former father-in-law and fellow Ohio Republican, Sen. Bernie Moreno, in the latest escalation of a long-running family legal drama.
Pamela MacAdams, an attorney for Miller, reported to the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Monday that three subpoenas were served in Miller’s divorce case, according to court records. A person with knowledge of the subpoenas granted anonymity to comment on them said that two were sent to Moreno and his wife, Bridget.
Their daughter, Emily Moreno, was married to Miller, and the two remain embroiled in a nasty legal battle.
Spokespeople for Miller, Emily Moreno and Bernie Moreno did not immediately return requests for comment. TMZ first reported on the subpoenas.
Miller is seeking reelection in a competitive district, and his campaign has been marred by accusations of domestic abuse against Emily Moreno and their daughter. Miller has repeatedly denied the allegations and chose to remain in the race despite other Republican lawmakers pressuring him to withdraw his campaign.
The House Ethics Committee, which began an inquiry into Miller after Miller asked to be investigated, is currently in a preelection blackout period. During that period, which will continue through the midterms, the Ethics Committee doesn’t take any action against sitting members who could return next Congress.
Congress
Trump declares $1B canceled in ‘pocket rescission’ in another affront to Congress’ funding power
President Donald Trump informed congressional leaders Friday that he has unilaterally canceled almost $1 billion without Congress’ consent — employing a budget maneuver many lawmakers consider illegal.
In a move that will almost certainly set up an ugly government funding battle after the midterms, Trump has again claimed the power to execute a so-called “pocket rescission” to nix money Congress has already enacted. The money his administration will claw back is for for immigration services, support to foreign countries, education programs, health research efforts and assistance for businesses owned by minorities.
By law, the president is allowed to send Congress a request to rescind federal funding, then withhold that money for 45 days while lawmakers consider whether to approve, reject or ignore it. Trump administration officials also argue they have the power to cancel funding without any congressional action by sending Congress a rescission request with less than 45 days left in the fiscal year. The argument is that the money automatically gets canceled on Sept. 30, when funding lapses at the end of the fiscal year.
Last year, Trump canceled $4.9 billion in foreign aid.
The Senate’s top Republican appropriator, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, immediately blasted the move as illegal, saying in a statement Friday night that “any effort to rescind appropriated funds without congressional approval is a clear violation of the law.”
“This move shows that OMB intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law,” Collins added, pledging to work with other lawmakers “to address these illegal actions.”
Collins and other appropriators have already been on high alert in recent days, pressing multiple agencies about funding officials have yet to spend ahead of the expiration date.
Democrats are finally catching on to how to talk to young male voters in the lead-up to the midterms, but the party can still up its game, one battleground senator and potential 2028er said Friday.
Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has been one of his party’s most outspoken critics on its handling of outreach to young men, who swung right and helped deliver the White House and both chambers of Congress to Republicans in 2024.
The party is now “definitely moving in the right direction,” Gallego said Friday.
“Like back in the day, I was like the only one,” putting out positions on men, Gallego said at a Washington event on young American men. “Now, like, it seems like everyone every week is coming out with a new position, new idea, which is great.”
Gallego has criticized Democrat’s failure to highlight mens’ struggles and their tendency to over-police mens’ ideas. But there are signs the political winds have shifted in his party’s favor.
A new Cygnal poll released with the event of men ages 18-30 who say they’re the most determined to vote revealed Democrats’ generic ballot lead over Republicans at 57%-40%, Blue Light News reported. The poll also said nearly 40 percent of respondents said they feel their lives are off track.
“We need to take the opportunity to invest in that portion of this country, to say that we care about them and actually try to change the trajectory of what’s happening with men in this country,” Gallego said at the symposium.
Still, the path for specific legislation targeting the needs of this demographic faces an incredibly tight calendar this Congress and is uncertain in the political landscape of next year.
A proposal from Gallego and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) to establish a men’s health office within the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, has not advanced. Nor has bipartisan legislation from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also spoke at the event, targeting education outcomes, college investment transparency and dyslexic student support.
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