{"id":16540,"date":"2025-12-11T13:01:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T13:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gops-health-revolt-heads-to-the-senate\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T13:01:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T13:01:46","slug":"capitol-agenda-gops-health-revolt-heads-to-the-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-gops-health-revolt-heads-to-the-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: GOP\u2019s health revolt heads to the Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

House Republicans just showed how divided they are over health care. Thursday’s Senate votes could expose the party\u2019s strife even further.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans know both parties\u2019 health care proposals are doomed Thursday. But as Democrats prepare to unite behind a three-year extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson can\u2019t get Republicans on the same page.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0<\/i>In the Senate: <\/b>Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is the only definite GOP defector on Thursday\u2019s vote on a framework by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would expand health savings accounts<\/a> rather than extend the enhanced Obamacare tax credits.<\/p>\n

But a handful of Republicans have not yet said how they would vote, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. And Florida Sen. Rick Scott \u2014 who has a competing proposal of his own<\/a> \u2014 said he\u2019s still reviewing the Crapo-Cassidy bill.<\/p>\n

Thune is already messaging around Thursday\u2019s near-certain failure and suggesting it\u2019ll spur more serious negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we get through this exercise this week the question is, \u2018Are there enough Democrats who want to fix the problem?\u2019\u201d he told reporters Wednesday. \u201cI think there\u2019s a path forward. … Obviously we don\u2019t have a lot of time to do this, but I think there are ways in which you could, where there\u2019s a will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 In the House:<\/b> At least 10 Republicans on Wednesday signed a bipartisan discharge petition<\/a> authored by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) that would extend the enhanced tax credits for two years while imposing new eligibility requirements. Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) also moved Wednesday to file a discharge petition on their own proposal<\/a> that would extend subsidies for a year with new guardrails.<\/p>\n

Both efforts are direct challenges to House leaders who appear determined to let the subsidies lapse. But they would likely need all House Democrats \u2014 and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is pushing a measure to compel a vote on a three-year extension. Asked if he would support Fitzpatrick\u2019s bill Wednesday night, Jeffries said he had not had the opportunity to look at it yet.<\/p>\n

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Blue Light News he\u2019s \u201cnot a fan of discharge petitions,\u201d adding that the extension framework being proposed in the Fitzpatrick-Golden bill is one of many that has split the GOP conference.<\/p>\n

But Golden and other centrists are urging leaders not to brush off brewing discontent.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeadership, no matter who they are, in both parties, House and Senate, should pay attention to what\u2019s going on with discharge petitions,\u201d Golden said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 From the White House: <\/b>Meanwhile, lawmakers are getting mixed signals about whether President Donald Trump wants Republicans to utilize the filibuster-skirting process of reconciliation to advance a party-line package to address affordability concerns, including health care.<\/p>\n

Asked Wednesday if he wants to see another megabill move through Blue Light News next year, Trump told reporters<\/a> \u201cwe don\u2019t need it.\u201d But hours later, White House deputy chief of staff James Blair told Semafor<\/a> the administration \u201cwould love to do\u201d another reconciliation bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really a partisan tool, and then obviously there\u2019s bipartisan pathways too,\u201d Blair said. \u201cWhich one opens up is largely contingent on whether or not the Democrats want to work on anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Will Cuellar get his gavel back?: <\/b>Rep. Henry Cuellar\u2019s (D-Texas) fate as an appropriations leader will be decided Thursday when House Democratic appropriators vote in a secret ballot on whether the recently-pardoned lawmaker will resume his former subcommittee chair role. Some Democrats are uneasy<\/u><\/a> with allowing a colleague who\u2019s been accused of bribery regain control over more than $60 billion in annual spending as the top Democrat overseeing Homeland Security funding.<\/p>\n

\u2014 National Guard deployments in the spotlight: <\/b>Pentagon officials will be in the hot seat during a 9:30 a.m. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing<\/u><\/a> on Trump\u2019s decision to send National Guard troops to cities like Washington and Los Angeles. The president has said the deployments were necessary to fight crime or crack down on protests; Democrats contend the administration is illegally wielding troops against blue cities.<\/p>\n

Meredith Lee Hill, Mia McCarthy, Nicholas Wu and Connor O\u2019Brien contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Republicans just showed how divided they are over health care. Thursday’s Senate votes could expose the party\u2019s strife even further. Senate Republicans know both parties\u2019 health care proposals are doomed Thursday. But as Democrats prepare to unite behind a three-year extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}