As we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation, your support is urgently needed. Please make a year-end gift to Truthout today.

Four Republican lawmakers have signed onto a Democratic-led discharge petition, which aims to force a vote on a bill that would restore tax credits for millions of Americans who receive health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Those tax credits, initially instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic, allow for more people to access the program, insuring more Americans as a result. But the credits are set to expire at the end of this year, unless legislation can be passed to extend them.

Ordinarily, the speaker of the House of Representatives can block legislation from being considered. But a discharge petition, which under current rules requires 218 signatures, is a special parliamentary rule that allows lawmakers to bypass that block, to get an up-or-down vote on any bill that receives that level of support.

After Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) indicated that he and Republican leaders would not advance a bill by the end of the year to address the looming ACA tax credit’s expiration, four centrist Republicans signed onto a discharge petition to force a vote on a........

© Truthout