A group of moderate Republicans is defying House GOP leaders to try and force a vote on extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies that expire at the end of this year.

Republicans led by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., on Wednesday filed a measure known as a discharge petition, a mechanism designed to force a vote on legislation over the wishes of leadership, provided it gets support from a majority of House lawmakers.

A dramatic series of events unfolded on the House floor as House GOP leaders worked to win support for an unrelated vote that first appeared poised to fail.

While a group of conservatives threatened to mutiny Republicans on that vote for separate reasons, several moderates also appeared to withhold their votes altogether, and Fox News Digital witnessed them in tense discussions with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other GOP leaders.

Those moderates eventually voted in favor of passing the legislation at hand before marching to the front of the House chamber to file their discharge petition. They lined up one by one to sign the document that would move their healthcare agenda full steam ahead despite Johnson signaling little appetite to entertain it.

So far, the petition has support from six House Republicans and two Democrats but is expected to grow in numbers as the clock ticks on the looming healthcare cost cliff awaiting millions across the country.

‘We know we need a temporary extension of the tax credits — with reforms — and then we can do more serious things, but we’re not gonna do serious changes to the [Affordable Care Act] in the next two or three weeks,’ Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., one of the signatories, told Fox News Digital. ‘So, we just felt like, since there doesn’t seem to be any impetus to do this, we’re gonna try to force the issue.’

Asked if he believed they would get House GOP leaders’ blessing, Bacon said, ‘Probably not.’

Fitzpatrick’s bill is aimed at advancing a two-year extension of Obamacare subsidies that Democrats expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democrats in Congress voted twice during the pandemic to expand the availability of premium tax credits for Obamacare, also called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to make sure more Americans had access to healthcare coverage.

A majority of House Republicans have signaled they are not open to extending them, at least not without significant reforms. Conservatives in particular have panned the enhanced subsidies as a COVID-19-era relic that benefited insurance companies rather than Americans.

But some GOP lawmakers have joined Democrats in warning that failing to extend them at least temporarily at this point will result in millions of Americans seeing their healthcare premiums skyrocket while Congress refuses to act.

Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., another Republican who signed the petition, said House GOP leaders signaled they would be ‘putting forward’ a number of healthcare reforms ‘that are very positive in nature,’ but ‘an extension of the ACA tax credits was not included in that package.’

‘So, we have been talking about and advocating for that to move forward, and so this seems like the best vehicle to do that,’ Mackenzie said. 

He told Fox News Digital, ‘The reason we’re in this mess to begin with is that things were done in a partisan fashion. And, so, I think if we want longevity and reforms and changes, we should be doing it in a bipartisan fashion.

‘It’s a time-sensitive matter, and it’s an existential matter for people back home who we care about where this is a very real problem,’ Fitzpatrick told reporters. ‘You try to do things through the normal course, you try to do things through regular order. When all those remedies are exhausted, then you’ve got to go this route, unfortunately.’

Asked if it was spurred at all by moderates’ conversation on the House floor with Johnson, Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said, ‘It was clear that, given the timeframe and given some of the differences within our conference on particular issues, that a bill was not going to be put forward. And so I think we all recognize the importance of getting an extension passed.’

But it’s not clear whether House Democratic leaders, who have their own discharge petition for a three-year extension of the Obamacare subsidies, will support the bill. It likely will not succeed without buy-in from all House Democrats.

Asked if his leaders would back it, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, said, ‘Go ask them. But I think they ought to.’

Johnson, for his part, told reporters discharge petitions were ‘typically used as a tool against the majority’ but said he was ‘very sympathetic’ to moderate Republicans’ concerns.

‘We have spent many, many hours trying to find a way out of the conundrum that we’re in. With regard to those extensions, there’s a lot of people who are very concerned about Obamacare and the fact that the subsidies were created by Democrats for COVID-era limited use,’ Johnson said.

‘We just can’t get Republican votes on that for lots of reasons, not enough of them. And, so, look, my colleagues have made a decision. I don’t take it against them personally, I don’t operate that way. I have great respect for those guys, I understand the situation they’re in for their districts, and we’ll see how it plays out.’

The U.S. has seized a Venezuelan oil tanker, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday, marking a sharp escalation in tensions with Caracas.

‘We’ve just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela. Large tanker, very large. Largest one ever seized action. And, other things are happening. So you’ll be seeing that later. And you’ll be talking about that later with some other people,’ Trump said at the White House.

The move is likely to further strain relations with Nicolás Maduro’s government, which already is subject to extensive U.S. sanctions targeting Venezuela’s oil sector. It comes after U.S. military strikes have targeted alleged narcotraffickers near Venezuela at least 22 times since September, killing 87 people.

The seizure was led by the Coast Guard and supported by the Navy, a U.S. official told the Associated Press. The Coast Guard and U.S. Southern Command directed Fox News Digital back to the White House, which could not be reached for comment. 

The Trump administration is considering launching land strikes on Venezuelan territory in an effort to further ramp up pressure on Maduro, who the U.S. views as the illegitimate leader of Venezuela and the leader of the Cartel de Los Soles drug trafficking cartel. 

Trump recently said Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ and refused to rule out a ground operation in the South American country. 

‘I don’t want to rule in or out,’ Trump told Politico. ‘I don’t talk about it.’ 

Venezuela has some of the largest oil reserves in the world and exports close to 750,000 barrels per day. Around half goes to China, according to Kplr data. 

Prior to broad sanctions, Venezuela was historically a major crude-oil supplier for the U.S.

After sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA) in 2019, imports dropped sharply. Limited sanctions relief and occasional licensing, notably for Chevron, allowed some Venezuelan crude to flow again to U.S. refineries in 2024 and 2025. Trump revoked Chevron’s license to purchase oil from Caracas earlier in 2025. 

The region around Venezuela has seen the largest U.S. military buildup in decades, including the presence of the world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, and the deployment of 10 F-35 jets to Puerto Rico to support Southern Command operations. On Tuesday, two F/A-18 flew over the waters north of Venezuela in training. 

In November, President Trump directed airlines to steer clear of the area — a move that raised speculation among analysts that Washington was preparing for land strikes. 

Trump and Maduro recently held a phone call, but the two sides failed to come to an agreement that would have seen Maduro leave power.

Oil revenue remains the central pillar of Venezuela’s collapsing economy, with the country relying heavily on discounted exports to China and other buyers willing to navigate sanctions exposure.

The nation moves much of its crude through a shadow network of reflagged tankers, shell companies and ship-to-ship transfers designed to conceal the origin of its oil. Many vessels operate with their transponders off or spoofing locations to avoid detection.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Senate Republicans rammed through the first procedural hurdle on their road to confirming nearly 100 of President Donald Trump’s nominees on Wednesday.

The move tees up a later vote on 97 of Trump’s picks and marks the third time Senate Republicans advanced a bloc of the president’s nominees since changing the confirmation rules in September.

The final vote to confirm the latest tranche of picks is expected next week. Once Republicans clear this latest package, they will have confirmed over 400 of Trump’s picks during the first year of his second term.

That benchmark would place him well ahead of former President Joe Biden, who at the same point in his presidency had 350 of his nominees confirmed.

Among the list of nominees are former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., to serve as inspector general at the Department of Labor, and two picks for the National Labor Relations Board, James Murphy and Scott Mayer, among several others across nearly every federal agency.

The inclusion of Murphy and Mayer in the package comes after Trump fired National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, a move that was ultimately found to be legal by the Supreme Court earlier this year.

It’s also Senate Republicans’ second attempt to move this package after Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., objected last week in a bid to derail the process.

Senate Republicans went nuclear and changed the rules surrounding the confirmation process in a bid to break through Senate Democrats’ monthslong blockade of Trump’s nominees and limited the scope to only sub-Cabinet-level positions that would be advanced through a simple, 50-vote majority.

But one of the nominees in the original package, Sara Carter, a former Fox News contributor whose legal name is Sara Bailey, was considered a ‘Level 1’ nominee, meaning she would hold a Cabinet-level position.

Trump tapped Carter in March to be his drug czar as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Carter’s inclusion in the package meant that if Republicans wanted to confirm the 87 other nominees and her, they would have to break the 60-vote filibuster threshold. That outcome was highly unlikely, given Senate Democrats’ near-universal disapproval of several of Trump’s picks and accusations that many were not qualified to serve in the positions they had been tapped to fill.

Senate Republicans took advantage of the opportunity, however, and moved instead to offer a new, more beefed-up package that added nine more nominees.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Wednesday that Moscow will retaliate if European governments deploy troops to Ukraine or seize frozen Russian assets to support Kyiv, according to Reuters.

Lavrov delivered the remarks before the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, outlining Moscow’s stance on the war and its clash with the West. Reuters reported that Lavrov insisted Russia does not seek war with Europe but is prepared to act if it views Western countries as escalating the conflict.

‘We will respond to any hostile steps, including the deployment of European military contingents in Ukraine and the expropriation of Russian assets. And we are already prepared for this response,’ Lavrov said, according to Reuters.

Lavrov also praised President Donald Trump’s approach to a potential settlement, calling him the ‘only Western leader’ who understands what he described as the reasons the war was ‘inevitable.’ He said Moscow appreciates Trump’s interest in dialogue but noted Trump is ‘not only in no hurry to lift, but is actually increasing’ sanctions on Russia, Reuters reported.

His comments referenced Trump’s criticism of Europe earlier this week. In an interview with Politico on Monday, Trump said European leaders ‘talk but they don’t produce,’ describing them as ‘weak’ and focused on being ‘politically correct.’ He added that he plans to continue endorsing European political figures who share his views, even if it ‘provokes pushback.’

European Council President António Costa rebuked Trump’s remarks, telling an audience at the Jacques Delors Institute conference in Paris on Monday: ‘If we are allies, we must act as such — and allies do not threaten to interfere in each other’s domestic political life and democratic choices,’ according to Reuters. Costa added that Europe and the U.S. ‘no longer share’ the same vision of the international order.

As Lavrov accused Europe of obstructing peace efforts, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced what he called the first formal meeting with senior Trump administration officials on Ukraine’s reconstruction.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Zelenskyy wrote: ‘Together with our team, I held a productive discussion with the American side… In fact, this could be considered the first meeting of the group that will work on a document concerning the reconstruction and economic recovery of Ukraine.’

He said they discussed ‘key elements for recovery, various mechanisms, and visions for reconstruction’ and reviewed updates to the ’20 points of the framework document for ending the war.’ Zelenskyy added that ‘overall security… will determine economic security and underpin a safe business environment.’

The Ukrainian president said both sides agreed to continue talks, adding: ‘As always, there will be no delays on our side. We are working to deliver results.’ He closed by thanking Trump, writing: ‘I thank President Trump and his team for their substantive work and support.’

Reuters contributed to this article.