An Acrimonious End to the Year
Vought Retribution Blows Up Funding Deal
Democrats have been loudly and clearly stating to the press that they aren’t intending to run a shutdown replay when the current government funding agreement expires at the end of January, even if ACA subsidies aren’t renewed. But that posture doesn’t account for the ongoing hostility towards appropriations law by OMB Director Russ Vought.
In his most recent bomb-throwing campaign, Vought’s actions upended a near-certain agreement on amendment votes ahead of passage on a five-bill appropriations minibus in the Senate (Defense; Labor-HHS; Commerce-Justice-Science; Transportation-HUD; and Interior) when he announced that the Administration would shut down the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado claiming it spreads “climate alarmism.” Instead this move appears to be a purely political retribution play by the President against Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Polis has refused to transfer a former state elections official convicted of multiple felonies after breaching voting equipment in the 2020 election from a state to federal prison as the transfer would facilitate a presidential pardon.
Funding for NCAR is provided by the National Science Foundation, governed by the CJS bill, so Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet are refusing to advance that appropriations bill until NCAR funding is restored.
This action from Vought comes on the heels of OMB proceeding with the reductions in force despite being explicitly banned in the funding agreement that ended the most recent government shutdown. As noted in a report released this week from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “the Administration’s abuse of RIFs has subverted the law and undermined Congress’s power of the purse by purposefully degrading the government’s ability to undertake certain congressionally mandated and funded activities.”
The Administration’s recent attempt to functionally shut down the Department of Education by illegally transferring its operations to other agencies, also displayed a willingness to disregard the law.
So, while the debate over the Affordable Care Act’s health care subsidies plays out (more on that below), the larger government funding riddle has arrived back where things went off the rails in March – with the Administration ignoring spending laws from Congress and challenging its constitutional authority.
New Deadlines Emerge as ACA Subsidies Expire
Congress has left Washington for the year without solving the problem consumed Capitol Hill for much of the last three months: the expiring Affordable Care Act enhanced premium subsidies.
House Republican leadership kicked off the week by introducing their own healthcare package, which included reforms for pharmacy benefit managers, new rules for association health plans, and modified requirements for individual and group health coverage. However, the legislation ignored moderates’ calls to address the ACA tax credits as negotiations ultimately fell apart over Republican leadership’s demands to offset the cost of the subsidies and add further Hyde Amendment restrictions.
While the legislation ultimately passed 216-211, four moderate Republicans defied Johnson, signing onto Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition to force a floor vote on a clean, three-year extension of the current credits. Although striking, this decision was a foreseeable culmination of weeks of frustration with Johnson and rising alarm over the 2026 midterm elections. On Wednesday, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) told reporters that this rebellion shouldn’t come as a surprise to Johnson, saying, “I’ve made it clear where this was all headed…this was never a secret.” Another House Republican was also quoted anonymously, saying of the discharge petition, “If this isn’t an indictment of the Speaker, I don’t know what is. He has failed this institution and his members.”
This discharge petition will ripen on Jan. 6. It’s possible that with his back against the wall, Speaker Johnson will try to head off the vote between now and then by finally negotiating with his mods. Or, he can take the L on this vote and toss the hot potato to the Senate to deal with.
Notably, discussions about solving the problem in the Senate have shifted, framing the end of open enrollment on the national exchanges (January 15th) as the deadline for Congressional action. However, as negotiations drag on, policymakers run the risk of reaching a compromise agreement that is too challenging to implement. For instance, KFF explains that while a clean extension would be relatively simple to achieve for the federal and state health exchanges, changes to eligibility or subsidy levels would be more complicated. In any case, many of the consequences of delayed action, including lost coverage for millions who don’t enroll and dramatically higher premium payments for those who can afford them, are not reversible.
