Congress
Why this purple-district Republican broke with Mike Johnson on Obamacare
Brian Fitzpatrick, the five-term House Republican and perennial campaign target for Democrats, has long been viewed by GOP leaders as a team player. Until now.
On Wednesday, his 52nd birthday, the congenial Pennsylvanian led a GOP mutiny against Speaker Mike Johnson over his handling of expiring Obamacare subsidies used by more than 20 million Americans. Fitzpatrick became the first Republican to back a Democratic-led effort to sidestep the speaker and force action on an extension of the tax credits. Three fellow GOP moderates quickly followed, cementing a January vote.
Fitzpatrick, who has consistently won re-election in one of the most competitive districts in the country, said in an interview the rebellion should have come as no surprise to Johnson.
“I’ve made it clear where this was all headed,” he said Wednesday. “This was never a secret.”
But it stunned many who have watched Fitzpatrick maneuver over the past decade, staking out an aisle-crossing persona while also being careful not to impede leadership prerogatives. He voted at several key junctures to advance the GOP’s party-line megabill this year, for instance, while eventually voting against its final passage.
Now he is earning some begrudging praise from Democrats for, they say, finally walking the bipartisan walk instead of just talking the talk.
“It was politically the smart thing for him to do in such a challenging district, but it also is a courageous thing, and I want to acknowledge that,” said Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.).
Fitzpatrick’s decision to embrace a discharge petition filed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has infuriated allies of Johnson, however, who argue that he is merely scrambling for political cover after moving too late to prevent a Dec. 31 lapse in the subsidies.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a House Rules Committee member, blasted the “horrible” move from Fitzpatrick and allies and said he would try to kill the effort in the panel.
“I’ll do everything I can to block it,” he said.
Wednesday morning’s drama was the culmination of weeks of mostly behind-the-scenes wrangling between a small group of moderate House Republicans and party leaders, who knew that there was a limited appetite in the GOP ranks for any sort of extension for the Obamacare subsidies.
As co-chair of the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus, Fitzpatrick was at the middle of those contentious dealings as he sought to build support for a two-year extension of the subsidies that would also include new eligibility restrictions and anti-fraud guardrails. But the effort was caught between Democratic leaders who wanted their members to unite behind a straight three-year extension and GOP leaders who wanted none at all.
Fitzpatrick last week filed a discharge petition for his two-year proposal, drawing a dozen GOP colleagues but limited buy-in from Democrats. Jeffries wanted his own discharge petition on a three-year bill — which already had 214 Democratic signatures — to remain the most viable option to force a House vote.
At the same time, Johnson was moving to assemble a much more limited response to the expiring subsidies — a bill that would tinker around the edges of the insurance markets but do nothing to extend the subsidies.
When a Blue Light News reporter informed Fitzpatrick last week that his GOP leadership was working on a health care framework that would not include a subsidy extension, he accused GOP leaders of living in a “fantasyland” and suggested Republicans would be hurting their own constituents for ideological reasons.
“These are people that we care about — these are our friends and neighbors that are receiving these subsidies,” Fitzpatrick said. “This is a personal thing for me.”
In the days that followed, a group of moderates that included Fitzpatrick as well as Reps. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) and others sought to cut a deal that would allow some sort of a House vote on a subsidy extension.
GOP leaders, Fitzpatrick said, denied their requests to take one of their compromise measures directly to the floor. They were encouraged to file an amendment to the Johnson-backed health bill with the Rules Committee, but making their measures comply with GOP conference requirements became “unnecessarily complicated,” he said, as they forged ahead.
Johnson’s allies counter that Fitzpatrick and the GOP moderates weren’t completely united and simply couldn’t deliver on the basic criteria Johnson laid out to strike a deal for an amendment. The speaker himself told reporters Tuesday, “I thought there was an agreement on the Fitzpatrick amendment and then they made different decisions.”
Ultimately, late Tuesday night, the Rules Committee voted to send a bill to the floor with no amendments.
“So that’s what led us to today,” Fitzpatrick said Wednesday.
There is one silver lining for Johnson: Fitzpatrick went back to playing team ball soon after signing the Democratic discharge petition and voted to send Johnson’s health bill to the floor. He went on to vote to pass it: “I’m not going to vote against something out of spite.”
Fitzpatrick’s careful political balancing act will get a serious test this year as Democrats redouble their efforts to oust him from his swingy Bucks County district. He won his last race in 2024 by more than a dozen percentage points even as former Vice President Kamala Harris carried his district.
“I think it demonstrates how much danger they’re in politically by siding with the MAGA majority, which was just throwing caution to the winds in terms of people’s health care,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). ”These are the desperate members of the Republican majority who are trying to hang on to their seats, and good for them that they understand what America wants.”
As Johnson was swarmed by reporters Wednesday morning asking about Fitzpatrick and the discharge petition, he said, “I have not lost control of the House.”
Fitzpatrick was a close ally of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and is not seen as being especially close to Johnson. He could engage in additional freelancing in the coming year that would make governing the tiny Republican majority even more difficult for top party leaders.
In addition to the five discharge petitions he’s already signed this year, he is working with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) to introduce another, on Russian sanctions.
“Every time somebody says that’s a tool of the minority, I correct them — it’s a tool of the rank-and-file,” Fitzpatrick said earlier this month. “To weaken the discharge would be just to empower the [party leaders], and we need more rank-and-file empowerment.”
Congress
Mike Johnson says House can end government shutdown ‘by Tuesday’
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.”
Congress
Shutdown likely to continue at least into Tuesday
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.
Congress
Here’s what federal programs are headed for a (possibly brief) shutdown
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.
-
The Dictatorship12 months agoLuigi Mangione acknowledges public support in first official statement since arrest
-
Politics12 months agoFormer ‘Squad’ members launching ‘Bowman and Bush’ YouTube show
-
The Dictatorship5 months agoMike Johnson sums up the GOP’s arrogant position on military occupation with two words
-
Politics12 months agoBlue Light News’s Editorial Director Ryan Hutchins speaks at Blue Light News’s 2025 Governors Summit
-
The Dictatorship12 months agoPete Hegseth’s tenure at the Pentagon goes from bad to worse
-
Politics12 months agoFormer Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron launches Senate bid
-
Uncategorized1 year ago
Bob Good to step down as Freedom Caucus chair this week
-
Politics10 months agoDemocrat challenging Joni Ernst: I want to ‘tear down’ party, ‘build it back up’







