Democrats Say Healthcare Will Be Their First Bill If They Win the House, Republicans Say Impeachment Comes First

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Tuesday, September 1, that healthcare will anchor House Democrats' agenda if the party retakes the majority in November. Asked what a Democratic-controlled House would prioritize, Jeffries named four items he said would draw "uniform Democratic support," according to NBC News: reversing Medicaid cuts from Trump's tax-and-spending law, extending expired Affordable Care Act tax credits, restoring congressional authority over tariffs, and ending the U.S. role in the Iran conflict "if it's still going on."

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., told NBC News there's consensus the first bill, known as H.R. 1 for its symbolic weight, needs to focus on affordability, with healthcare front and center. Jeffries said Democrats have set up five working groups on affordability covering housing, healthcare, childcare, groceries, and utilities, and pledged aggressive oversight of the Trump administration.

The Party Isn't United on How Far to Go

Restoring Medicaid funding and ACA subsidies is the floor, not the ceiling, for many Democrats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told NBC News that simply restoring the cut funds would "absolutely not" be enough.

But Jeffries has publicly ruled out embracing Medicare for All as leader. On NBC's "Meet the Press" on August 16, host Kristen Welker pointed out Jeffries cosponsored Medicare for All bills from 2013 to 2021 but stopped after becoming Democratic leader. Jeffries confirmed it, saying, "I haven't cosponsored the Medicare for All legislation that has been introduced over the last several years," and argued Democrats should "fix our broken healthcare system and then build something better" rather than replace it outright, according to the Epoch Times.

Jeffries also said on that broadcast he does not support the Democratic Socialists of America's platform "as has been articulated by the DSA itself," and specifically rejected defunding police and open borders. Former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had said days earlier that democratic socialists are "not Democrats" but "a separate party," a line Welker put directly to Jeffries. Emanuel later told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that the party's 2028 nominee will settle the direction fight.

Republicans Say the Real Agenda Is Impeachment

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital that Democrats will move to impeach President Trump immediately if they win the majority, saying, "They'll impeach the president day one," and attributing the push to the party's "far left," according to Breitbart.

Three House Democrats — Reps. Shri Thanedar of Michigan, Al Green of Texas, and John Larson of Connecticut — have filed impeachment resolutions against Trump since January 2025. All three lost their primaries this year, though Breitbart's own reporting doesn't tie those losses to their impeachment votes specifically. Jeffries has not publicly committed to bringing an impeachment vote, and no House Democratic leader has confirmed Scalise's characterization on the record in these reports.

The Fight Is Already Playing Out in Swing Districts

California's 22nd District, stretching from Bakersfield to western Fresno County and newly redrawn to favor Democrats, has some of the highest Medicaid enrollment of any congressional district in the country, according to KQED. Republican Rep. David Valadao, who has held the seat since 2012 except for a 2018 loss tied to an ACA repeal vote, faces Democrat Randy Villegas, a Visalia school board trustee campaigning on "Medicare for all."

Voters interviewed by KQED and in reporting shared with KFF Health News described real strain. A Bakersfield Amazon warehouse worker identified only as Carlos said he lost Medi-Cal eligibility after a raise, then had his insurer force him onto a generic drug after a decade on the same medication. "Why are you playing funny business with my medication?" he asked. Valadao has defended his vote for the GOP's tax-and-spending law, saying it protected Medicaid for children, pregnant women, disabled people, and seniors while funding a rural hospital program.

In Arizona's 1st District, Democrat Amish Shah, a former ER doctor running on single-payer healthcare, faces Republican Jay Feely, a former NFL kicker. The Daily Wire's reporting focused less on Shah's healthcare platform and more on his state legislature votes against a 2022 law banning transgender surgeries on minors and against bans on males in girls' sports. The National Republican Congressional Committee's Ben Petersen called this evidence Shah is "too extreme for Arizona." That framing sidesteps the healthcare-cost argument Shah and Democrats elsewhere are centering, illustrating how the trans-issues fight and the affordability fight are being run as separate campaigns in different districts.

Congress Bought Itself Time

Separate from the healthcare fight, the House passed a continuing resolution Tuesday, September 1, funding the government through December 11, by a 370-48 vote, according to The Guardian. Nineteen Republicans and 29 Democrats voted no. The bill delays a new White House budget office rule Democrats feared would let the administration cancel grants at will. Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said the concessions were enough to secure broad bipartisan support.

The shutdown fight is now punted past the November 3 midterms, meaning the next government funding deadline will land squarely in the lame-duck period after voters decide which party controls healthcare policy, tariff authority, and impeachment votes for the rest of Trump's term.