House conservatives are vowing to block any funding deal that would extend the expiring enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.
Republican leadership in the House is trying to figure out how and if they should extend the subsidies, as millions of Americans could otherwise see their health care premiums spike at the end of the year, and vulnerable Republicans are likewise pressuring leadership to extend the subsidies. One source close to leadership told NOTUS that Republicans are looking at a number of options, including attaching a clean extension to a government funding bill or adding an income cap to the subsidies.
But members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus say those ideas are non-starters for them.
“They can put some lipstick on it, but it’ll still be a pig,” Rep. Jodey Arrington, the chair of the House Budget Committee, told NOTUS about the subsidies.
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Arrington added that if leadership decides to include an extension in must-pass legislation, such as a continuing resolution, then it would make him a “lean no” on the bill.
He’s not the only one. While they are prone to folding on key votes, members of the House Freedom Caucus said they will work to stop any legislation that includes an extension of the enhanced ACA subsidies.
“My take is hell no,” Rep. Eric Burlison said about extending the subsidies. “At some point, we need to be an adult and say this nation can’t afford it.”
The chair of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Harris, echoed this sentiment, saying that if leadership decides to put the extension in a stopgap resolution, then they will have to “find their votes somewhere else.”
Another member, Rep. Eli Crane, said he would do “everything in my power to try and avoid supporting” a measure that extends the enhanced subsidies, and Rep. Andrew Clyde said he “would not support the ACA subsidies period.”
Nothing is finalized yet, and leadership and appropriators warn that they are still in talks about exactly how to handle this. While the White House has yet to weigh in publicly on the subsidies, a person familiar with conversations between the White House and congressional Republicans told NOTUS that discussions on the issue are ongoing.
Those talks haven’t dominated any leadership meetings, according to sources, with the issue being briefly mentioned but not discussed in depth.
Even Appropriations Chair Tom Cole has said he doesn’t know what the leadership plan is quite yet and said the decision ultimately wouldn’t fall to him.
“That would be a decision made above my head by leadership,” Cole told reporters. “That’s really not something we would consider, something they would decide to attach at a later point.”
Some vulnerable Republicans, however, have introduced legislation to extend the subsidies through the midterms, fearing that if they expire in December on top of Medicaid already being slashed, it would prove disastrous for them come November of next year.
“We can’t pull the rug out from under hardworking families—we must give Americans more time to plan,” Rep. Jen Kiggans, the sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement. “Yet if we end this tax credit now, a family of four earning $64,000 annually in VA-02 could see their premiums increase by over $2,500 a year. Additionally, a 60-year-old couple earning $82,800 would face nearly $12,000 in higher annual premiums. This is the last thing Virginians need and it’s unacceptable.”
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