Four centrist House Republicans broke ranks to vote with Democrats on Wednesday, forcing a vote on extending Obamacare subsidies and risking the wrath of President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.
Republicans have struggled to address healthcare concerns, failing to put together a concrete plan to replace Obamacare. As Obamacare subsidies are set to expire, four centrist Republicans in vulnerable districts decided to defect to the Democratic side of the vote, giving House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) the necessary 218 signatures on his discharge petition to force House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to call a vote on the Democrats’ bill to extend the subsidies by three years.
Though the move is unlikely to extend the subsidies, as the Senate has indicated it has no plans to hold a vote on the matter before January 2026, it exposed rare disunity within the Republican caucus.
Here’s what to know about the four Republican rebels:
Brian Fitzpatrick
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) won his first election alongside Trump in 2016. Since then, he has painted himself as a centrist Republican. The Bipartisan Index has declared him the most bipartisan member of Congress for several years in a row.
In 2024, he was one of only three Republicans to win a congressional seat in a district that former Vice President Kamala Harris won.
His centrism has made him more sensitive on matters of healthcare and welfare, voicing caution against any Republican moves that would end Obamacare without a proper replacement.
“As I’ve stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge,” Fitzpatrick wrote in a statement. “Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome.”
Before a Rules Committee meeting on Tuesday, he said letting the Obamacare credits expire was “not a good option” and that the party needed a “responsible bridge.”
“We are leaving no stone unturned. We want to pursue every single path, exhaust every remedy,” he said.
Mike Lawler
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), a centrist Republican from one of the party’s most vulnerable districts, was the least diplomatic in his criticisms of the plan to let the credits expire.
“This is absolute bulls***,” he fumed on Tuesday.
In a Wednesday interview with the Morning Call, he described the plan as “idiotic” and “shameful.”
“Speaker Johnson is correct that the system is not working, and just throwing money at the insurance companies is not going to make it more affordable,” Lawler said. “But you have to have a plan in place. You have to have reforms in place. And to just end the subsidy without those changes to me is idiotic.”
Despite the harsh language, Johnson was understanding of his criticisms.
“Fitzpatrick and Lawler and the others are fighting tooth-and-nail for their constituents — I understand that as well as anyone, because I’m the one in their districts campaigning with them,” Johnson said, adding that “the solution that is being sought by Democrats would further harm the system.”
Rob Bresnahan
Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) flipped his seat red in 2024, narrowly defeating the incumbent Democrat. He stressed in his statement on his defection that he had called for action on the matter for months, and noted his reluctance to the move.
“Despite our months-long call for action, leadership on both sides of the aisle failed to work together to advance any bipartisan compromise, leaving this as the only way to protect the 28,000 people in my district from higher costs,” Bresnahan said in a statement. “Families in NEPA cannot afford to have the rug pulled out from under them. Doing nothing was not an option, and although this is not a bill I ever intended to support, it is the only option remaining.”
Ryan Mackenzie
Freshman Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) occupies another one of Republicans’ most vulnerable seats, with over 20,000 of his constituents relying on the Obamacare credits.
He warned for weeks that action must be taken on the matter and that letting time run out on the credits was not an option.
“I think that we need to deal with the reality of where we are now, and even if you have a broken system, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t provide or offer relief to individuals who are dealing with those high costs right now,” he said in a December interview with the Associated Press.
Last week, he bashed Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress.
REPUBLICAN REBELS HAND JEFFRIES BIG WIN BY FORCING VOTE ON OBAMACARE EXTENSIONS
“I think leadership on both sides has failed on this issue,” he said. “Speaker Johnson has not put forward a reform package on the ACA tax credits like I think he should have, and I have advocated to him for income caps and reforms that crack down on waste and abuse of different tax credits.”
He signed two previous discharge petitions aimed toward a compromise.
