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.”
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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