WASHINGTON ― The decision by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to keep the House of Representatives out of session during a government shutdown has a curious side effect: It’s delaying a vote on the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Johnson canceled votes last week and this week. He said the House will only return after the Senate approves a government funding bill that the House passed before the government shut down last week. So far, Senate Democrats haven’t budged in their demands for health policy changes.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said the House is actually out of session to thwart his “discharge petition” to allow a vote on the Justice Department’s investigatory files on Epstein.
“Why are we in recess? Because the day we go back into session, I have 218 votes for the discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files,” Massie wrote Sunday on social media.
Discharge petitions allow rank-and-file lawmakers to go around party leadership to force votes. Such petitions need 218 signatures to succeed. Massie has 217, and there’s a new member waiting to be sworn in who will provide the 218th signature.
