The U.S. House passed a three-year extension of expired Affordable Care Act subsidies on Thursday, with a band of 17 Republicans — including Rep. Monica De La Cruz of Edinburg — joining with the chamber’s Democratic minority to approve the measure.
The issue of the ACA tax credits — which millions of Texans claimed last year to reduce the cost of their health insurance premiums — was at the center of last year’s government shutdown and is set to be a major campaign topic in the fall midterms. De La Cruz is the only House Republican from Texas whom national Democratic groups are targeting in 2026.
“Rising health care costs remain a concern for many in our South Texas communities,” De La Cruz said in a statement. “I have been committed to working with members on both sides of the aisle to find a bipartisan solution to expand options for families, lower health care costs, and require price transparency for prescription drug prices. While this is not what we initially wanted, today’s vote is in the best interest of South Texas families and the only option to bring certainty for those who rely on these credits.”
Twenty-two other Republicans from Texas voted against the extension, while two — Reps. Michael McCaul and Wesley Hunt — did not vote. All 12 Texas Democrats voted in favor. The bill, which reached the floor against the wishes of House Republican leadership, passed on a 230-196 vote.
Democrats in the chamber clapped and cheered after the vote — Houston Rep. Sylvia Garcia high-fived members and fellow Houston Rep. Al Green waved his cane in the air.
But the bill faces tough prospects in the Senate, where it would need support from 13 Republicans and every Democrat to reach the 60 votes required to pass. But the House passage may spur a bipartisan group of senators working on a subsidy deal to find a compromise.
The ACA tax credits became a hot-button issue after Democrats refused to fund the federal government last fall unless Republicans agreed to extend the subsidies. First expanded in 2021, the tax credits, paid to insurers to lower ACA enrollees’ monthly premiums, drove significant growth in Texas’ ACA population. Republicans have argued that they are rife with fraud and only serve to benefit insurance companies without addressing the underlying cost of health care.
With the tax credits having expired at the end of last year, hundreds of thousands of Texans are expected to drop or downgrade coverage due to their increased premium costs.
South Texas, in particular, has benefited from the expanded tax credits; over 20% of residents are enrolled in the ACA in numerous counties in the region, including Duval, Hidalgo and Starr counties. De La Cruz’s district, in both its current and future redistricted iteration, includes much of Hidalgo County.
De La Cruz, along with Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez, D-Brownsville, had been part of a bipartisan group working on a framework to reform and extend the subsidies. The group released a bill in December that would extend the credits for two years while setting an income cap and guardrails aimed at preventing fraud.
But after GOP leadership declined to put a compromise bill on the floor, several moderate Republicans joined with Democrats on a pair of procedural “discharge” motions — in December and again on Wednesday — to force Thursday’s vote.
De La Cruz’s yes vote neuters a key Democratic argument for her eventual midterm opponent. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democrats running against De La Cruz have criticized her over the ACA in the past, and Democrats have sought to make health care a defining issue in battleground districts around the country.
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