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Frustrated Republicans move to force Obamacare vote as warnings mount about the midterms

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A group of House Republicans moved to force a vote on extending Obamacare health insurance subsidies that will expire in just three weeks, directly challenging party leaders who appear determined to let them lapse.

At least six Republicans signed a discharge petition filed Wednesday on a bill authored by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) that would extend the expiring tax credits for two years while imposing new eligibility requirements. The subsidies are currently used by more than 20 million Americans.

“It’s a time-sensitive matter, and it’s an existential matter,” Fitzpatrick told reporters after filing the petition. “You try to do things through the normal course. You try to do things through regular order. You know, [when] all those remedies are exhausted, then you’ve got to go this route, unfortunately.”

The move to sidestep Speaker Mike Johnson came as a growing number of mainstream House Republicans publicly warned that their leaders’ apparent plan to allow the tax credits to expire without a replacement in place will cost them their majority in next year’s midterm elections.

“If we fumble this health care ball, nothing else is going to matter,” Rep. John Rutherford of Florida said. “If we don’t win the majority in the midterms, then none of this matters. We can’t do anything good then. I think everybody understands that.”

Johnson did not include a subsidy extension in a menu of options he presented to members in a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning, and some conservative hard-liners who attended spoke against the idea.

But many members in the meeting spoke up to call for an extension, to the point that Republicans leaving the room thought that they had in fact decided to forge ahead with an extension.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.) said it would be a “bad move” for Republicans to allow the tax credits to lapse, adding that he was “worried about my colleagues.”

“There’s a lot of good people who won by one, two, three or four votes,” he said. “Do I think this issue is worth a couple points in an election? Yeah, I do.”

The Republicans joining the discharge petition include Reps. Mike Lawler of New York, Don Bacon of Nebraska and Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania, with Rep. Nick LaLota also indicating he planned to sign on.

That would be enough to force a vote eventually if all House Democrats sign on to the proposal, but that is by no means assured. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday he is pushing a separate discharge effort on a three-year subsidy extension that does not include new eligibility requirements.

Golden, a centrist Democrat who is retiring after his term ends, said leaders of both parties should pay heed to this discharge petition and others that have succeeded this Congress.

“Leadership, no matter who they are, in both parties, House and Senate, should pay attention to what’s going on with discharge petitions,” he said.

President Donald Trump has so far not weighed in publicly on the extension of the subsidies, saying only that he “wants to give money to the people,” not to insurance companies. Various GOP plans have been proposed that would direct money to health savings accounts instead of premium subsidies that go directly to insurers.

Senate Republicans are expected to support one such proposal in a Thursday vote, but it’s not clear it can get more support than the three-year clean extension favored by Democrats.

None of the alternative proposals has reached critical mass inside the House GOP, and without an extension, premiums for some enrollees on Affordable Care Act marketplaces will soar by hundreds of dollars within a matter of weeks, fueling the panic in the Republican ranks.

While more GOP lawmakers are speaking out about the subsidy cliff, it’s not clear how many more will be willing to sign a discharge petition — which is typically considered a major breach of party loyalty and an option of last resort.

For instance, Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) said in an interview she wants to lower health care costs and noted she’s signed onto a plan including a two-year subsidy extension.

But she said she would have to think about whether she would sign onto a discharge petition.

GOP leaders have argued, including at Wednesday morning’s conference meeting, that the subsidies are wasteful and that there is not enough internal support to extend them. But others in the party ranks have their doubts.

“I call bullshit on that,” said one conservative House Republican in a deep-red seat who was granted anonymity to speak frankly. “Most people here know we need a bridge.”

Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

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Congress

Mike Johnson says House can end government shutdown ‘by Tuesday’

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House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is confident Congress can end the partial government shutdown “by Tuesday” despite steep opposition from Democrats and turmoil within the GOP conference.

Johnson is under pressure to unite his caucus, with lawmakers raising concerns about funding for the Department of Homeland Security as the Trump administration faces scrutiny over its nationwide immigration crackdown that has at times turned violent.

House Republicans are hoping to take up the $1.2 trillion funding package passed by the Senate on Tuesday following a House Rules Committee meeting Monday. The partial shutdown began early Saturday.

GOP leadership in the House originally hoped to pass the bill under suspension of the rules, an expedited process that requires a two-thirds-majority vote, but Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Johnson on Saturday that Democrats would not help Republicans acquire the necessary support for the spending bill.

“I’m confident that we’ll do it at least by Tuesday,” Johnson said in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have a logistical challenge of getting everyone in town, and because of the conversation I had with Hakeem Jeffries, I know that we’ve got to pass a rule and probably do this mostly on our own. I think that’s very unfortunate.”

The Senate voted Friday to pass a compromise spending package after Senate Democrats struck a deal with President Donald Trump to extend DHS funding for two weeks. The move bought Congress more time to work out a compromise on reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after federal officers fatally shot two people in Minnesota earlier this month.

Speaking to host Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” Johnson acknowledged that “there’s been tragedies in Minnesota” — but he also blamed Democrats in the state for “inciting violence,” even as the Trump administration attempts to tamp down pressures in the state.

Johnson praised Trump’s decision to send White House border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, a step widely seen as a deescalation from the aggressive tactics favored by Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.

“[Trump] was right to deputize him over that situation,” he said of Homan on NBC. “He has 40 years of experience in Border Patrol and these issues. So I think that this is going to happen, but we need good faith on both sides. Some of these conditions and requests that they’ve made are obviously reasonable and should happen. But others are going to require a lot more negotiation.”

Johnson pushed back in particular on Democratic calls to bar federal immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks and require them to wear identification, telling Fox’s Shannon Bream: “Those two things are conditions that would create further danger.”

He also signaled an unwillingness to negotiate on Democratic demands to tighten requirements for judicial warrants for immigration operations.

Still, House Democrats remained opposed to passing the funding package as is, with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) saying Sunday: “I’m not just a no. I’m a firm no.”

“I just don’t see how in good conscience Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they’re killing American citizens, when there’s no provision to repeal the tripling of the budget,” Khanna said in a Sunday interview with Welker on NBC. “I hope my colleagues will say no.”

Jeffries also signaled Sunday that a wide gap remains between his conference and House Republicans, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that the House must reach an agreement on judicial warrants “as a condition of moving forward.”

“The one thing that we’ve said publicly is that we need a robust path toward dramatic reform,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.” “The administration can’t just talk the talk, they need to walk the walk. That should begin today. Not in two weeks, today.”

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Shutdown likely to continue at least into Tuesday

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The partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning is on track to continue at least into Tuesday, which is the earliest the House is now expected to vote on a $1.2 trillion funding package due to opposition from Democrats and internal GOP strife.

House Republican leaders have scheduled a Monday meeting of the House Rules Committee to prepare the massive Senate-passed spending bill for the floor. According to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, the procedural measure teeing up a final vote would not happen until Tuesday, with final passage following if that is successful.

That’s one day later than GOP leaders had hoped. Their previous plan was to pass the bill with Democratic help under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process requiring a two-thirds-majority vote.

But that plan was complicated by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries telling Speaker Mike Johnson in a private conversation Saturday that Democratic leadership would not help Johnson secure the 70 or so Democratic votes to get the measure over the line, according to the two people and another person granted anonymity to discuss the matter.

The Tuesday plan remains tentative as GOP leaders scramble to navigate tensions inside their own conference, which could make passing the procedural measure difficult. Some conservative hard-liners, for instance, want to attach a sweeping elections bill to the package.

Jeffries said in a MS NOW interview Saturday that Republicans “cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a my way or the highway approach” while noting that House Democrats are set to have “a discussion about the appropriate way forward” in a Sunday evening caucus call — first reported by Blue Light News.

He did not rule out that Democrats might support the Senate-passed spending package, which funds the majority of federal agencies through Sept. 30 while providing a two-week extension for the Department of Homeland Security — including controversial immigration enforcement agencies.

Democrats, Jeffries said, want “a robust, ironclad path to bringing about the type of change that the American people are demanding” in immigration enforcement.

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Here’s what federal programs are headed for a (possibly brief) shutdown

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Government funding is set to lapse at midnight Friday for the military and many domestic programs, but cash will continue to flow at a slew of federal agencies Congress already funded.

House leaders are aiming to send a funding package to President Donald Trump Monday, days after the Senate passed the legislation just before the deadline to avert a partial shutdown.

The effect on most federal programs is expected to be minor, and employees who are furloughed would miss just one day of work if the House acts on schedule — which is not assured.

This time, many of the services that have the greatest public impact when shuttered — like farm loans, SNAP food assistance to low-income households and upkeep at national parks — will continue. That’s because Congress already funded some agencies in November and earlier this month, including the departments of Energy, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Interior and Veterans Affairs, as well as military construction projects, the EPA, congressional operations, the FDA and federal science programs.

Still, the spending package congressional leaders are trying to clear for Trump’s signature next week contains the vast majority of the funding Congress approves each year to run federal programs, including $839 billion for the military.

Besides the Pentagon, funding will lapse for several major nondefense agencies beginning early Saturday morning.

That includes federal transportation, labor, housing, education and health programs, along with the IRS, independent trade agencies and foreign aid. The departments of Homeland Security, State and Treasury will also be hit by the shutdown.

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