Inside House Democrats’ plan to keep health care front and center
Plus: SCOTUS upholds marriage equality (for now), a Senate Democrat re-ups a trio of veterans’ bills and a prominent New Jersey Democrat won’t seek re-election in 2026.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
House Democrats huddled on a private caucus call this afternoon to talk strategy ahead of the expected passage of the Senate’s bipartisan framework to reopen the government. Leadership told members to be ready to return to Washington as soon as Wednesday once the package arrives from across the Capitol.
I’m told members remain furious with the eight Senate Democrats who voted with Republicans to begin debate on the Senate plan, but were encouraged by leaders to remain zeroed in on health care and affordability—the twin issues Democrats credit for their strong showing in last week’s off-year elections.
The argument Democratic leaders made is that voters see Republicans and President Donald Trump as responsible for the shutdown, so Democrats should keep the spotlight on who’s fighting for lower costs. Members were also asked to train their fire on vulnerable House Republicans.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee circulated a memo from Chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) that called out 25 swing-district Republicans for refusing to back an extension of ACA subsidies. The memo named members like Reps. Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), María Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Tom Kean Jr. (N.J.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) as top targets. DelBene framed the message around accountability and urged Democrats to call out Republicans by name in their home states and media markets for failing to stand up to President Trump and GOP leadership on behalf of their constituents to prevent premiums from spiking.
I’m also told House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) floated the idea of circulating a discharge petition as a legislative vehicle to extend the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits, one of Democrats’ biggest demands left out of the Senate deal.
“The ACA is the number-one issue,” one member who was on the call told me. “And we must keep talking about it.”
Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, walked members through the framework and urged them to oppose it. She criticized the package for dropping ACA subsidy extensions and for failing to protect Congress’s power of the purse from the Trump administration’s attempts to claw back funds already approved by Congress.
DeLauro also zeroed in on what she called one of the most frustrating omissions: $51.7 billion in advance funding for the Toxic Exposure Fund, which was included in the House bill but stripped from the Senate version. She said veterans shouldn’t have to worry about whether their health care will be there for them a year from now and disputed a claim by Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) that the funding violated Senate rules.
“They chose not to do it this time for veterans,” DeLauro told colleagues.
DeLauro did point out a few bright spots. The Government Accountability Office would see nearly $400 million more than in the House bill and a GOP rider blocking the GAO from suing the administration in the future for alleged wrongdoing was dropped. Democrats also notched smaller wins in the MilCon-VA and Agriculture bills.
Jeffries characterized Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the all but three Senate Democrats who rejected Republicans’ previous attempts to reopen the government without an extension of the ACA subsidies as “courageous” throughout the shutdown. But he was much more measured with his plaudits earlier this afternoon.
“I don’t have much to say about those individuals and they’re going to have to have to explain themselves to their constituents and to the American people,” Jeffries told me. “I certainly believe the overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats, led by Chuck Schumer, have waged a valiant fight over the last seven weeks, defeating the partisan Republican spending bill 14 or 15 different times, week after week after week, and continue to oppose this effort of passing legislation that does not address the Republican health care crisis by extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”
The top House Democrat added that the health care fight will soon shift back to the House and provide his members with another opportunity to hold Republicans accountable.
“All of these loudmouths on the House Republican Conference side who’ve been saying for the last several weeks that we have to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries said. “Now is their chance.”