Leaders announced on Wednesday afternoon that Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Ed Case (D-Hawaii) joined 211 Democrats in signing onto the measure.
However, Democrats would need the backing of at least five House Republicans for the effort to be successful.
If a majority of the lower chamber backs the effort, Democrats could force a vote on legislation to lift the debt ceiling.
“We’re five signatures away,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “So for our Republican colleagues who give interviews and go back home and talk about how they want to work together, and talk about how they’re not extreme like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and how she doesn’t speak for them — this is their opportunity.”
“It takes a handful of members of the GOP to say, ‘Enough,’” Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip, told reporters in the Capitol.
But Democrats face a tough challenge in trying to round up the necessary GOP backing for the plan, particularly as the party locks arms behind Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) amid tense debt limit negotiations with the White House.
“We’re not even close to anything like that,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a co-chair of the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus, said last week.
“We already created a framework and the Senate hasn’t acted. So the House can’t take Step 3 until at least Step 1 is passed. So the discharge petition is off the table,” he added.
The Hill’s Mike Lillis has more here.
