AMNA NAWAZ: Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to run out for millions of people in just two weeks.

But, today, there was a shift on Capitol Hill.

Four moderate House Republicans defied Speaker Johnson and signed a Democratic-led petition to force a vote on extending the subsidies.

That three-year extension now has the support to pass the House, but the vote won't happen until January.

Meanwhile, also today, House Republicans advanced a separate bill that would reduce health care costs overall, but would not extend the subsidies.

Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins spoke with lawmakers about where things stand.

LISA DESJARDINS: Joining me now are two members from the same state, but different parties, who have been working across the aisle on this issue, California Republican Kevin Kiley and Democrat Jimmy Panetta.

Representative Kiley, let me start with you.

This discharge petition that would extend these subsidies for three years is getting a lot of attention.

Are you ready to sign on to that or no?

REP.

KEVIN KILEY (R-CA): Well, I'm ready to do whatever will actually solve the problem.

My concern with that bill is that it is not a compromise and it's already been rejected by the Senate, so we could pass it in the House, but it won't actually solve the problem for 22 million Americans.

What we need to do is support one of three compromise proposals that are out there.

I have a bill with Sam Liccardo.

There's one with Jen Kiggans and Josh Gottheimer.

There's one with Brian Fitzpatrick.

All of these are reasonable compromises that provide for a temporary extension with reforms.

But, unfortunately, the leadership in both parties has refused to do what's necessary to get a vote on those bills.

LISA DESJARDINS: We're going to come back to those ideas, but just one quick check.

So is that a yes?

Are you thinking of signing on to this three-year extension?

REP.

KEVIN KILEY: I'm still considering whether that's the best option for actually getting the problem solved.

I'm not interested in taking votes just for the purpose of taking votes or to try to make it look like you're doing something.

I'm interested in actually finding a solution.

LISA DESJARDINS: Congressman Panetta... REP.

JIMMY PANETTA (D-CA): I... LISA DESJARDINS: Oh, go ahead.

REP.

JIMMY PANETTA: Yes.

No, and I appreciate that, Lisa.

I think the question for Mr.

Kiley and something he will figure out is whether or not he's going to vote for it, because, fortunately, there were four Republicans -- and I give them a lot of credit -- who signed on to the discharge petition today.

Therefore, we hope that there's a vote come early January.

Unfortunately, it's after the deadline, after 22 million are going to be affected by the cutoff in the tax credits for the ACA, but at least it's something.

And the unfortunate part, and I know Kevin feels this way, is that we have come to govern by discharge petition in the United States Congress, not by leadership.

And that's something that unfortunately has affected us throughout the 119th Congress.

But this is necessary to send over to the Senate so that they now have a tax vehicle upon which they can work with.

And, as you know, that's where the nuts and bolts are going to get added to this flatline extension of three years.

LISA DESJARDINS: Well, I want both of you to be brutally honest about this, because, obviously, millions of people's health care is at stake here.

How hopeful are you that there could be a solution in January here?

REP.

KEVIN KILEY: Well, I think that if we don't get a solution by the end of December, then, yes, we need to do everything we possibly can to get a solution in January.

But really what we should do is get a solution now.

I offered an amendment last night that would have been presented to the Rules Committee that I thought reflected what an acceptable compromise to our leadership was.

But, unfortunately, I was told that would be ruled out of order.

And so we just have gotten into these rigid positions from the leadership on both sides.

So it's fallen upon folks like me and my colleague here, Representative Panetta, to try to lead as members to find the common ground that will be necessary to solve this problem, as you say, for 22 million Americans who are going to pay massively more for health care in a matter of days if Congress doesn't act.

REP.

JIMMY PANETTA: Yes, I think we're going to have -- this is -- this has to be the short-term solution.

But we both know that there's got to be a long-term solution as to how we fix our health care system.

Right now, we understand it's expensive.

Right now, there are patients in my district and senior citizens who just aren't getting the care that they need, especially with doctors not getting reimbursed enough for Medicare.

So, obviously, you have the reimbursement issue with the ACA and you have the reimbursement issue with Medicare.

These are something that we have to focus on not just short-term, but long-term.

And, hopefully, this three-year tax extension gets to the Senate, comes back, gives us the foundation upon which we could then start having serious conversations, not just amongst members, but hopefully leadership actually understands how important it is to fix our health care system.

REP.

KEVIN KILEY: Yes, I totally agree with that.

This is designed to give us some runway to solve the larger affordability issues in our health care system.

And it has to be done in a bipartisan way.

We have seen far too much partisanship.

Republicans take control and try to do their health care plan.

Democrats take control try to do theirs.

But the costs have continued to spiral out of control.

To really fix health care in America, to control costs, to provide greater choice, to unleash innovation, we need to do it in a bipartisan way.

LISA DESJARDINS: I need to circle back on something you said, Congressman Kiley.

I'm going to attempt a yes-or-no question from you guys.

Is there any chance that these subsidies get extended in December?

It doesn't seem like it?

Doesn't it seem like... REP.

KEVIN KILEY: I think there's a -- yes, I am not ready to give up.

I think we have got two weeks left in this week.

We have got two weeks left in the year.

All it would take is for the speaker to bring one of these bills to the floor.

And I have been actively involved in discussions with him and members on both sides as recently as an hour or so ago.

So we're not giving up.

And if we do get to the point where they expire, we will do everything possible to mitigate the harm and try to make people whole.

REP.

JIMMY PANETTA: Lisa, you understand how Congress works.

Unfortunately, we don't govern by leadership Yes, we govern -- we don't govern by leadership.

We govern by crisis.

And, therefore, it's a day-by-day situation.

And, hopefully, the speaker actually develops the chutzpah to actually bring this bill to the floor, so that we can get it to the Senate and let them do the work that they need to do in order to give us a foundation for a short-term fix, extending the tax credits and then ultimately the foundation to talk about a long-term fix to our health care system.

LISA DESJARDINS: I want to make sure our viewers are clear-eyed, though.

Speaker Johnson has been clear he's not bringing up this vote.

There's no reason to think that he will.

And most of Congress is leaving tomorrow, probably, for holiday break.

Understanding your points, Congressman Kiley, my question to you is about January and what happens then.

This is actually for you, Congressman Panetta.

There's a funding deadline in January, at the end of January.

Should Democrats demand health care action in return for funding government again?

REP.

JIMMY PANETTA: Look, we -- that's what we demanded during the shutdown.

And we got to this point right now.

And, hopefully, that's something where we will be able to fix it in early January, because the last thing we want is a government shutdown.

That's not what I wanted back then.

It's not what I have wanted throughout my time in Congress.

But, unfortunately, it's gotten to that situation where we have had to shut down the government in order to fix our differences.

Hopefully, this is something, with this discharge petition, we can pass it out of the House, get it to the Senate, and then have something, a foundation to extend the tax credits well before the budget deadline.

LISA DESJARDINS: Congressman Kiley, you mentioned the speaker and leadership earlier.

The speaker himself has told reporters today that he was open to getting one of your bills on the floor and worked with you very hard, but that you moderates opted out because of requirements for pay-fors.

But what was his role exactly in all of this?

How do you see that?

REP.

KEVIN KILEY: Well, so, yesterday, it was very clear, and based on what the speaker said today even, that he had agreed to one of these compromise proposals with pay-fors.

And so I prepared an amendment for the Rules Committee last night that would have done precisely that, that would have stopped us from going off this cliff, would have spared 22 million people this huge increase in health care costs.

Unfortunately, the speaker then decided that he was not going to rule that to be in order and allow for a vote on the amendment.

So that's very disappointing to me.

I think that this is a failure of leadership, frankly, on both sides that we have seen.

And it's all too typical of Washington, of the current state of the U.S.

Congress, that most of the energy from party leaders seems to be spent trying to blame the other side for problems, rather than actually trying to work towards solutions to those problems.

Fortunately, we do have some members who are willing to reach across the aisle.

We have both signed on to one of the discharge petitions by Mr.

Gottheimer and Ms.

Kiggans that would solve this problem.

So we are still trying to work together to find a solution.

REP.

JIMMY PANETTA: And we're both members of the Problem Solvers Caucus, in which just today we had a meeting about this issue with senators, bipartisan, bicameral, in which they can basically discuss kind of the one runway that we have to take going forward.

But Speaker Johnson needs to understand this stat that, of those 22 million people, three-quarters of them are in red states.

It's amazing that he wouldn't appreciate the fact and listen to his constituents and their constituents in those red states to realize that you have got to be able to serve them and not just the president of the United States.

LISA DESJARDINS: All right, Congressman Kevin Kiley and Jimmy Panetta, we will stay very closely tuned.

Thank you both.

REP.

KEVIN KILEY: Thank you.

REP.

JIMMY PANETTA: Thank you.