Congress

Republicans want a health care plan. They don’t know what will go in it.

Published

7 months ago

December 3, 2025

Republican lawmakers are looking to craft their own health care policy overhauls by the end of next week, when Senate Democrats get a vote on expiring Obamacare subsidies. So far they don’t agree on what their competing plan should look like.

In separate closed-door meetings Tuesday, House and Senate Republicans debated what they could put forth as they face the reality that health insurance premiums will skyrocket if enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits lapse after Dec. 31. Speaker Mike Johnson for the first time definitively promised his anxious members he would put forward some kind of health care blueprint in the coming days, while Senate Republicans discussed how to lower health care costs including through a revamp of health savings accounts.

But GOP leaders in both chambers face deep divisions within their ranks about how to proceed, including whether to extend the credits at all and force Republicans to vote for the first time to affirm Obamacare. With Tuesday’s conversations producing little clarity, GOP lawmakers said they are still far away from a plan they could unite behind by the end of next week.

“Have you ever heard of a Rorschach test? Let’s smear it all over the wall,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said about the state of the GOP’s health care discussions.

Some Republicans on Capitol Hill worry that the failure to come up with any plan in the coming days could be a political nightmare heading into the 2026 midterms, with GOP candidates being dogged by questions about increased health care costs.

Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) Tuesday warned of a potential backlash during the midterms if the subsidies expire, predicting Democrats would pummel Republicans in 2026 by highlighting a “number of sympathetic cases” where Americans have seen their health insurance costs go up.

“There’s a lot of harmonization that needs to be done,” he said about the GOP’s health care talks.

During their weekly lunch Tuesday, Senate Republicans heard from Finance Chair Mike Crapo and HELP Chair Bill Cassidy about their progress in developing a Republican proposal that could be put on the floor alongside the Democratic plan. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is giving Democrats a vote as part of a deal he struck to re-open the government.

As part of the lunch, Republicans discussed providing more flexibility for how health savings accounts are used, imposing income caps on ACA subsidies and requiring ACA enrollees to make minimum payments on premiums, according to senators in attendance.

Cassidy, a physician, has been an evangelist for boosting health savings accounts as an alternative to extending the tax credits. He’s poised to use a HELP Committee hearing on the topic Wednesday to tout this proposal.

Thune is facing competing pressures within his conference over whether the ACA subsidies should be extended or allowed to sunset. Some GOP senators said after Tuesday’s lunch they expected there would be a vote on some kind of Republican health care measure next week, but Thune wouldn’t commit to that timeline, telling reporters only that his members would continue to discuss ideas.

Crapo, in an interview, said it would be a “collective decision” from the Senate GOP Conference about whether his proposal with Cassidy would get a vote next week.

Republicans are also still waiting to see what the Democratic proposal will be. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after a closed-door lunch with his own caucus that they discussed the idea and to “stay tuned” on where they would land. Democrats are likely to offer a clean extension of the subsidies, but haven’t said how long that extension would be.

Across the Capitol, Johnson pledged Tuesday for the first time that House Republicans will put forward a health care plan soon. Many House Republicans left a closed-door conference meeting with the sense that GOP leaders could produce a framework by the end of this week.

But House GOP leaders are confronting their own internal squabbling, with one person close to leadership, granted anonymity to speak candidly, describing that goal as “ambitious.”

Leaders of the House Republican Conference have also pushed to omit any ACA subsidy extension from their upcoming health care plan, alarming GOP moderates who worry their reelection prospects hinge on the subsidies’ survival.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise got an earful on the concerns about proceeding without an ACA extension during a lunch meeting with the centrist Republican Governance Group, according to four Republicans in the room.

One of the Republicans, granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation, said that nearly every member of that caucus complained to Scalise that “something needs to be done” on health care before the end of the year. Many of the members present advocated for an ACA subsidy extension.

Scalise didn’t make any promises but said the “will of the conference” would decide whether Republicans could back health care provisions like an extension of the ACA subsidies — though a majority of House Republicans don’t support it.

“We had a good conversation about all the work that’s been done by the three committees of jurisdiction,” Scalise said in an interview after the meeting, referring to House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means and Education and the Workforce.

“Of course, members that aren’t on those committees, you know, haven’t been aware of some of the things that have come out, but we also wanted to get their feedback,” Scalise added.

Some Republicans are holding out hope for a bipartisan breakthrough, as GOP leaders pursue what would likely be party-line options.

House Problem Solvers Co-Chair Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) is working on a bill that reflects the leaked health care framework the White House was planning to reveal last week but held back amid conservative backlash. He told reporters Tuesday he has discussed the bill with the White House and it is “not addressing” abortion restrictions — a bid to entice Democrats.

“We’re trying to get a bill that can get 218,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think it’s the most serious attempt out there.”

Benjamin Guggenheim and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Congress

Johnson-backed plan to combine Pentagon and election bills advances to floor

Published

3 hours ago

June 30, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House Rules Committee advanced a procedural measure aimed at breaking an intra-Republican deadlock Monday night. But GOP leaders are still facing a major battle Tuesday to regain control of the House floor.

The panel approved on party lines a measure to set up Republicans’ $1.1 trillion defense policy bill, a government funding bill and other GOP bills for floor debate. It would then combine the Pentagon bill, once passed, with the contentious elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act and send it to the Senate as one piece of legislation.

That maneuver, telegraphed by Speaker Mike Johnson earlier Monday, is aimed at appeasing House GOP hard-liners who have blockaded the floor, demanding the Senate pass the elections bill that has languished there for months.

However, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, the Republican leading the blockade, said in an interview Monday before the Rules Committee acted that Johnson’s plan is not sufficient — raising the possibility she and allies could vote down the measure on the floor. Other House GOP hard-liners say there are other outstanding issues to battle over Tuesday.

Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, called the merger move “a big waste of time.” The panel voted down a motion by McGovern to remove the provision to combine the two bills in a party-line vote.

The Senate is set to debate its own version of the defense bill next month, and it is likely that the elections overhaul will be removed in negotiations between the two chambers — as McGovern acknowledged Monday and House GOP leaders privately concede.

“The Senate will just strip the SAVE Act out,” he said at the meeting. “There is a zero percent chance SAVE ends up in the [Pentagon bill] because of this rule today.”

The defense bill faces a tight vote if Republicans can pass the procedural measure. Most Democrats are expected to oppose the measure over its massive price tag, which they contend is wasteful.

The panel is set up debate on 312 amendments to the bill. The slate includes GOP measures to codify a Trump executive order to block transgender people from serving in the military, prohibit coverage of gender-affirming care, block aid to arm Ukraine and strip Democratic-backed protections for collective bargaining for Pentagon civilian workers.

The committee also voted down Democratic proposals to slash $150 billion from the bill’s topline and limit the war against Iran.

Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Congress

Pentagon and elections bills could be combined in bid to unfreeze House floor

Published

5 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday he plans to deploy an unusual procedural maneuver in a bid to unfreeze the House floor this week, seeking to send the annual Pentagon policy bill and the GOP elections bill known as the SAVE America Act to the Senate in a single package.

That is likely a recipe for a continued standoff between the two chambers over the SAVE America Act, which has stalled in the Senate for months due to internal GOP divides. Under Johnson’s plan, the annual defense policy bill, which typically passes every year with large bipartisan majorities, could become a collateral victim of the impasse.

Asked in brief interview if he had talked to Senate Majority Leader John Thune about his plans, Johnson replied, “I have to do my job in the House, and they’ve got to do their job in the Senate, so we’ll see what happens.”

Johnson is seeking to placate House conservative hard-liners, led by Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who have threatened to oppose the procedural measures that give Republicans control of the floor unless they agree to tougher tactics meant to force the Senate into passing the elections bill.

House GOP leaders discussed the plan to merge the two bills over the weekend as Luna pushed to amend the defense bill directly.

She did not say in an interview Monday whether Johnson’s gambit would suffice: “We want it baked together, not able to be stripped out,” she said.

But the Senate is free to work its own will, and members of that chamber are likely to reject any defense bill that has the partisan elections bill attached. That would set the stage for GOP leaders to strip it out when the House and Senate hash out the differences between their competing Pentagon bills later this year.

Johnson, meanwhile, is pushing a separate plan to pass a slimmed-down version of the SAVE America Act through the party-line budget reconciliation process — an option hard-liners have all but rejected.

“I don’t think that that can be done,” Luna told reporters Monday.

He’s also facing another complication: The version of the SAVE America Act he is proposing to attach to the Pentagon bill doesn’t include the latest demands for the bill from President Donald Trump — including a near-total ban on mail voting that is opposed by many Republicans.

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Top Trump officials face bipartisan questions in first all-member Iran briefings

Published

6 hours ago

June 29, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Lawmakers of both parties questioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff Monday in the first broad congressional briefings on President Donald Trump’s Iran deal.

While Democrats asked some of the sharpest questions, participants in an afternoon conference call with House members said, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) at one point pressed the administration officials on the fate of Iran’s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium.

According to two people granted anonymity to disclose the private remarks, Witkoff and Rubio repeated assurances the administration has privately made to select lawmakers in prior briefings — that the goal is to negotiate a final deal that would prohibit Iran from keeping its highly enriched uranium.

The memorandum of understanding Trump signed earlier this month, they said, was meant to launch those negotiations. Witkoff, the people said, added that the technical team involved in that part of the talks was traveling from Switzerland to Qatar, where talks between the U.S. and Iran are set to happen Tuesday.

Democrats, meanwhile, pushed the administration for more details on what financial benefits Iran could reap under the memorandum — including proceeds from previously sanctioned oil sales.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) went back and forth with Rubio and Witkoff over the lifting of the oil sanctions, two other people granted anonymity on the House call said. The officials eventually cut off the conversation and ended the call.

At another point, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) raised concerns about Witkoff’s business interests in the Middle East as he’s negotiating with Iran, prompting a sharp defense from Rubio, those people said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked Rubio and Witkoff about the oil sanctions during a separate all-senators call Monday, saying in a statement afterward that they “confirmed to me that Iran will reap billions in oil revenue while retaining dangerous leverage over the Strait of Hormuz.”

“If this is the administration’s defense behind closed doors, Secretary Rubio should make it under oath, in public, before the Foreign Relations Committee,” Schumer added, calling the briefing “delayed, deficient, and devoid of details.”

An administration official granted anonymity to speak candidly countered on Schumer’s characterization, noting that he had previously gotten a briefing of the deal as part of a group of top leaders engaged on national security matters. Schumer, the official said, had the opportunity to ask multiple follow-up questions on the Senate call.

A separate group of White House officials briefed top congressional leaders and key committee chairs in a classified briefing in the Capitol later Monday.

The administration has faced bipartisan skepticism over multiple provisions of the memorandum of understanding — particularly the lifting of oil sanctions and a $300 billion reconstruction fund that many Senate Republicans fear will help fuel Iran’s military and regional proxies.

Rubio and Witkoff sought to ease concerns about the slow reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the critical trade route whose closure has sparked higher fuel and fertilizer costs. Both officials said more mine removal is required, and Witkoff indicated that Iran broke the terms of the Trump-signed deal by launching a drone attack on a passing ship over the weekend.

They also sought to assure lawmakers that Iran has received no money under the memorandum — especially not directly from American sources. Administration officials have previously pledged in smaller briefings that the reconstruction fund won’t include U.S. funds.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) called the Senate briefing a “productive conversation” but said “much of what I heard today is similar to what I heard last week” during a dinner at Vice President JD Vance’s residence.