House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was recently heard getting into a "heated" argument with one Republican member of the House of Representatives.
On Tuesday, NOTUS' Reese Gorman reported that Johnson was overheard in a closed-door meeting with moderate members of the House Republican Conference. GOP moderates had been meeting with the speaker to discuss last-minute fixes to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits due to expire in less than three weeks, which would cause monthly health insurance premiums to jump significantly for millions of Americans.
In one exchange between Johnson and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), the New York Republican was heard lamenting to Johnson that Republicans would never get another chance to pass a bill via the reconciliation process (in which the Senate can pass legislation with a simple majority, provided the bill itself pertains to strictly budgetary matters). At that point, the speaker reportedly erupted at Lawler.
"At one point during a meeting between mods and Johnson things got so heated reporters could hear what was being said outside," Gorman recounted, noting that Lawler said: "We are never getting a second reconciliation bill."
"Take those words out of your mouth," Johnson reportedly said.
According to Gorman, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) tried to win over Johnson with two separate proposals to extend the tax credits beyond 2026. Kiggans' legislation included a way to get around the statutory requirement for an extension to be budget-neutral, though Johnson and other Republicans have insisted on other measures to pay for the extension that moderates oppose.
Fitzpatrick has been circulating a bipartisan discharge petition to extend the ACA tax credits, which is the same method Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) used to circumvent Johnson on the matter of releasing the Epstein files. Fitzpatrick's petition has been cosponsored by Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), Donald G. Davis (D-N.C.), and Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.)