House approves ACA credits in rebuke to GOP leaders

What happened

The House of Representatives on Thursday approved a Democratic proposal to resurrect expired Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years. Seventeen “renegade GOP lawmakers joined every Democrat” in the 230-196 vote, The Associated Press said, significantly more than the four Republicans who helped force the bill onto the floor by signing a discharge petition last month. “The GOP revolt was bigger than anticipated,” Politico said, “and a stunning rebuke” to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and President Donald Trump.

In a further blow to Trump, the Senate advanced a measure that would block further military action in Venezuela, with five Republicans joining all Democrats. And the chamber also agreed to install a plaque honoring the police officers who protected the Capitol from a Trump-inspired mob on Jan. 6, 2021, in a unanimous vote two days after Trump’s White House published a revisionist history blaming the attack on law enforcement and Democrats.

Who said what

The “dramatic” House GOP revolt on ACA credits was “driven by concerns about spiking health care costs in an election year dominated by affordability concerns,” Axios said. The bill “has no path to enactment” through the GOP-led Senate, The New York Times said, but the “largely symbolic vote” could “bring fresh momentum to bipartisan efforts to find a compromise on health care costs” and the ACA subsidies, which ended Jan. 1.

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Taken together, Thursday’s votes showed that “Trump’s honeymoon with the Republican Congress is officially over,” Semafor said. He was “apoplectic” at the five Republicans who supported the Venezuela resolution, urging voters to defeat them in future elections. “Lawmakers voting against their party’s president is common in midterm election years,” The Washington Post said, but the “repeated rebukes” of Trump, “and the number of lawmakers defecting, are unusual.”

What next?

The Senate will have a final vote next week on Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Va.) Venezuela war powers resolution. The House is scheduled to vote next week on GOP legislation to codify Trump’s push for more powerful showerheads. The Shower Act was “poised to be the first bill passed by the House this year,” the Post said, but “congressional leadership bumped it to next week” due to the ACA vote.