Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday that he would put a contentious bill compelling the release of all of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein case files to a vote on the House floor next week – earlier than expected.
“We’re going to put that on the floor for a full vote when we get back next week,” Johnson said, adding, “in the meantime I’ll remind everybody the [House] Oversight Committee has been working around the clock” on its own investigation.
Johnson was required to soon put the bill from Reps. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, on the floor after the pair successfully deployed an arcane tool in the chamber known as a discharge petition. But he had some leeway to do so.
The Republican leaders’ suggestion that he would move more quickly than expected to put the bill before the full House is a reflection of the growing sense of agitation among members of his party on Capitol Hill. The House GOP – which is fiercely loyal to Trump – is not eager to take the vote, which goes against the president’s own wishes. But many members of the party are also sick of the months of growing pressure from some vocal members of their own party, including Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and feel they need to vote in favor of releasing the files or risk being accused of protecting pedophiles.
“Just get it to the daggum floor and let the people decide,” a frustrated Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, told reporters after he went rogue earlier in the day, taking to the House floor to try to force an expedited vote on the bill.
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