U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan said the Democrats’ efforts to lower healthcare costs amid the government shutdown are worth fighting for. Mrvan also warned that midcensus redistricting, for any state, could “accelerate extremism.”
As the government shutdown stretches into its second month, Mrvan, D-Highland, said he’s either been in Northwest Indiana meeting with constituents or in Washington, D.C., for House Democratic caucus meetings to talk about protecting access to healthcare.
House Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t called the U.S. House of Representatives into session amid the shutdown, Mrvan said, adding that Johnson “has his own motives for that.”
The House passed a short-term continuing resolution on Sept. 19 to keep federal agencies funded. Johnson, R-Louisiana, has kept the House out of legislative session ever since, saying the solution is for Democrats to simply accept that bill.
But the Senate has consistently fallen short of the 60 votes needed to advance that spending measure. Democrats insist that any bill to fund the government also needs to address health care costs, namely the soaring health insurance premiums that millions of Americans will face next year under plans offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.
Coverage prices are expected to rise by 26% for consumers on the Obamacare exchanges, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, but that increase could rise to nearly 114% on average if premium tax credits are allowed to expire at the end of 2025.
Republicans insist they will not entertain negotiations on health care until the government reopens.
Amid the shutdown, the House Democratic caucus has been meeting “to find solutions and to make sure that we have a consensus on fighting, protecting and advocating for access to healthcare,” Mrvan said.
“People who are on the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, their premiums are going to skyrocket. That is worth fighting for,” Mrvan said. “Those are working families, those are single parents, those are business owners, those are individuals who can’t afford high deductibles and whose employers can’t afford to provide insurance.”
In Northwest Indiana, there are tens of thousands of people who rely on the Affordable Care Act for health insurance, Mrvan said. If people can’t afford health insurance, they won’t go to the doctor for preventative care, Mrvan said, which will overload emergency rooms and hospitals as people delay the care they need.
The House Democratic caucus has been discussing how to find a permanent or two-year extension on the tax credits to address healthcare costs.
“This is an affordability fight,” Mrvan said. “I am here in good faith to negotiate, to find a solution to make sure that (the government) opens up.”
Republicans have the majority in the Senate and the House as well as control of the White House, which means the Senate can go for the “nuclear option” of voting to end the filibuster, Mrvan said.
The filibuster requires 60 votes in the Senate to advance most legislation, such as a continuing resolution, Mrvan said. Without the filibuster, the Senate could pass the continuing resolution with a simple majority, he said.
This shows, Mrvan said, that Republicans haven’t reached a consensus on their side. Historically, neither party has supported ending the filibuster because it gives the minority party leverage during the budget process.
For the Democrats, the leverage of the government shutdown is public opinion, Mrvan said, because people want the government to reopen and don’t want to see people suffer, whether through losing access to food or healthcare coverage.
Ahead of the shutdown, Mrvan said many people were upset with the Trump administration’s tax and spending law, which is projected to increase the nation’s deficit and gives major tax cuts to the wealthy while cutting funding to Medicaid and Medicare.
“Finding a solution, opening government up and doing everything we can to stop the bleeding on our healthcare prices when it comes to financial feasibility for families, that is worth fighting for and people are encouraging about that,” Mrvan said.
As states grapple with midcensus redistricting, Mrvan said his concern is as states push for all Republican or all Democratic control “then you are accelerating extremism.”
“I believe, and have consistently believed, as a member of Congress in bipartisanship and finding middle ground,” Mrvan said. “When we go down the path of saying we should have an all-red state, that’s very short-sighted.”
President Donald Trump and national Republicans have been pressuring red states to change their congressional maps before the 2026 election to increase Republican control of the U.S. House.
After multiple meetings between Vice President JD Vance and Indiana Republican leadership, Gov. Mike Braun has called for a special legislative session to “consider altering the boundaries of Indiana’s congressional districts” and federal and state tax compliance beginning Nov. 3, according to a news release.
The special session, which can take place within 30 days of Braun’s order, was called amid pushback from Hoosiers and a lack of votes in the Indiana Senate to pass new Congressional maps.
It is unusual for redistricting to take place in the middle of the decade and typically occurs once at the beginning of each decade to coincide with the census.
Indiana was last redistricted in 2021, which left Congressional Republicans with seven seats and Democrats two seats. The two Democratic seats are the first district, held by Mrvan, and the seventh district, held by U.S. Rep. André Carson.
Four years ago, Republican state legislators boasted about how well Indiana’s Congressional districts were redrawn, Mrvan said.
“They were very proud of their districts. They were very proud of the work. I believe the reason you have the resistance in the State Senate is because they know that those are fair, reliable, keeping communities together with maps that they have produced,” Mrvan said.
Indiana Senate Republicans should consider what his father, former State Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, said to him about being a politician: “I never intentionally have made the wrong decision.”
“I believe that you have resistance because the state senators know that they are proud of the maps that they have passed, and that this can divide our state even more unnecessarily,” Mrvan said. “Sometimes, it takes great courage to stand up for what you believe in in the face of insurmountable odds.”
When asked if he’s concerned about how potential redistricting could impact his ability to win in 2026, Mrvan said he will be a Congressional candidate for the First District in the 2026 midterm election.
Jennifer-Ruth Green, the 2022 Republican candidate in the First Congressional district, announced this week she is running for the same seat again. Republican Barb Regnitz, finishing her third year as a Porter County commissioner representing Center District, filed a statement of organization last week to run for the First District seat. Lake County Councilman and GOP Chair Randy Niemeyer, the Republican nominee in 2024, has not indicated whether he will run again.
While the political tension at the national and state level seemingly increases, Mrvan said his focus will remain on bipartisanship.
“I will not allow the conditions of our current political state of affairs of division change me and my beliefs that middle ground and bipartisanship is the best path forward for uniting our country,” Mrvan said.
