Democrats plan long-shot discharge petition for Obamacare subsidies as House GOP Leader Steve Scalise calls the COVID-era credits wasteful.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., announced a long-shot plan to force the House of Representatives to vote on a three-year extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies.

During a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Jeffries said Democrats would submit a discharge petition that, if successful, would bring the subsidies to a vote in the chamber over the objection of GOP leadership, giving Democrats a way to continue pursuing their shutdown demands.

"The House Democratic position is going to be the House Democratic position," Jeffries said shortly after leaving the meeting. "We believe that the American people — given the Republican refusal to act and find a bipartisan path forward — should be given the same level of certainty that Republicans have continued to give the wealthy, the well-off and the well-connected."

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The three-year window for the proposed extension coincides with the duration of President Donald Trump’s second term, which ends in 2028. 

In response to the plan, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said the discharge effort was an ill-conceived attempt to give a new lease on life to a program that was always supposed to be temporary.

"There’s a reason Democrats set these inefficient subsidies to expire. COVID ended — it’s time these insurance company credits do, too. Republicans have real solutions to lower premiums for hardworking families, and they don't include bailing out insurance companies that are increasing prices," Scalise said.

The whip also slammed the high health insurance costs that the Obamacare tax credits subsidize. 

"Democrats created the healthcare mess with Obamacare that has resulted in 80% increases in premiums. Now their only solution to those skyrocketing premium increases is to bail out insurance companies with billions in taxpayer subsidies. These COVID subsidies are rife with waste, fraud and abuse," Scalise said. 

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The petition, which Jeffries said Democrats would likely submit later on Wednesday, would require 218 votes to succeed. Democrats hold 213 seats — soon to be 214 seats with the addition of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva.

Even so, Democrats would need the assistance of at least four Republicans to force consideration of the subsidies.

Democrats have sought the extension to the credits since the government plunged into a government shutdown on Oct. 1. Democrats, led by Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., refused to consider spending legislation without first extending the subsidies in some way. Congress first passed them as an emergency response to COVID-19 in 2021.

Democrats fear that the expiration of those subsidies at the end of the year could leave millions of Obamacare policyholders with significantly higher premiums overnight.

Now that Congress looks poised to escape the shutdown — without any action on the subsidies — Democrats have pulled out all the stops to put the extension on the floor. Earlier this week, they attempted to pass it as a unanimous consent agreement. On Tuesday, Democrats submitted an extension as an amendment to legislation to reopen the government.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, said she supported the most recent attempt.

"I support a three-year extension. I was supportive — I thought it was a very reasonable thing that the Senate did, which was a one-year extension," DeLauro said, referring to a plan floated by Schumer in the Senate.

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Republicans rejected the one-year extension proposal.

Rep. Melanie Stansburry, D-N.M., said Democrats had upped their demands when it became clear Republicans wouldn’t agree to a shorter timeline.

"What I can say is that the original negotiating position of Democrats in the House and Senate had been a two-year extension that was obviously rejected," Stansbury said. "I certainly support it and will be signing it."

In the event the discharge petition collects the needed 218 votes, it’s unclear when it will reach the floor for consideration.

The House of Representatives will entertain funding legislation on Wednesday night that would end the ongoing, 43-day shutdown.