House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CBS News that Democrats will still press to extend a slate of expiring health insurance subsidies, as a 43-day-long government shutdown nears a possible end without the health care provisions that many in his party viewed as a dealbreaker.
“House Democrats are in this fight until we win this fight,” Jeffries said in an interview with “CBS Evening News” anchor John Dickerson. “This fight is not over for us. We’re just getting started.”
Speaking hours before the House is expected to vote Wednesday evening on a bill that would fund the government until late January, Jeffries told CBS News that “Democrats remain strongly opposed” to the bill, which passed the Senate with some Democratic support. It will not need any Democratic support in the House as long as virtually all Republicans vote for it.
Democrats in both the House and Senate had long pressed for Congress to extend Biden-era enhanced health insurance tax credits in exchange for their votes to reopen the government. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year, which could lead to higher premiums for millions of people who buy insurance on Affordable Care Act exchanges.
But over the weekend, eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus signed onto a bill to reopen the government and approve a trio of full-year spending bills, in exchange for a promise from Senate GOP leadership to hold a vote on the tax credits at some point. House GOP leaders have not committed to holding a vote in the lower chamber.
Asked by Dickerson what he’s heard from constituents about the Senate Democrats who voted for that deal, Jeffries said he hasn’t heard much, but his constituents do want Democrats to “keep up the fight, protect the health care of the American people.”
“Grocery costs are too high, utility bills and electricity bills are through the roof, and health care costs are way too high,” said Jeffries. “We need you to do something about it.”
The New York Democrat touted a separate bill that would extend the health insurance tax credits for three years.
He said “we’re going to force Republicans to vote on that, if not today, at some point soon,” referring to his plan to attempt to force a vote using a procedural move called a discharge petition. Jeffries will need several House Republicans to sign the petition, though.
“Republicans claim that they want to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” he said. “They’ll have an opportunity to do so, since their leadership refuses to do that.”
More from the interview with Jeffries will air Wednesday on the “CBS Evening News.”
