The Jeffrey Epstein saga is inflicting chaos within the Home for the second week in a row, as threats of Democrats forcing politically robust votes are prompting Home GOP management to toss out lots of their plans for the week.
The difficulty began as quickly as lawmakers returned to Washington on Monday, when the Home Guidelines Committee, which units up motion for payments on the ground, met to tee up votes to rescind Biden-era guidelines and on an immigration invoice.
However Democrats, who had compelled Republicans on the panel into a lot of politically tough votes on the Epstein matter final week, threatened to take action once more. They deliberate to stage a vote on bringing laws to the ground that may compel the discharge of the Epstein information.
Slightly than face these votes, Republicans are opting to easily not tee up any votes in any respect, in response to a number of members of the panel — leaving the Home with no flooring enterprise within the days forward of August recess past noncontroversial suspension payments, fast-track measures that want two-thirds assist to go.
“Democrats keep putting all these amendments up. They want to make Epstein — and, you know, we’re all for transparency, and we’re going to do that, but what they want to do is grandstand. They said they’ll be there all night, we’ll be there all night,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the Guidelines Committee, instructed reporters. He added that the committee was not anticipated to return, and the Home would solely cope with suspension votes.
Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the highest Democrat on the Guidelines Committee, confirmed that the panel wouldn’t reconvene for the remainder of the week.
“We’re done,” McGovern instructed The Hill. “Not reporting out a rule, we’re done for the night, we’re done for the week. … There’s some issues going on within the Republican conference, I think around the Epstein stuff, that they can’t seem to get under control. So we’ll do probably suspensions for the remainder of the week.”
It’s the second time in as many weeks the so-called Epstein information saga has thwarted GOP management’s plans for the Home flooring.
Republicans on the Guidelines Committee final week had tried to handle the Epstein matter after being lambasted by the general public over rejecting a Democratic modification, an effort that delayed motion on a invoice to codify Division of Authorities Effectivity cuts to public broadcasting and international assist for hours.
The GOP members on the panel got here up with a nonbinding decision calling for the discharge of extra information and teed it up for flooring motion. However GOP management has no plans to convey the matter for a vote.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stated earlier Monday that the Home wouldn’t vote on the laws earlier than the August recess — which is scheduled to start after votes on Thursday.
As a substitute, Johnson stated he wished to provide the administration time to behave on the matter by itself.
“Here’s what I would say about the Epstein files: There is no daylight between the House Republicans, the House, and the president on maximum transparency,” Johnson stated within the Capitol on Monday. “He has said that he wants all the credible files related to Epstein to be released. He’s asked the attorney general to request the grand jury files of the court. All of that is in process right now.”
“My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing, and if further congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we’ll look at that,” he added. “But I don’t think we’re at that point right now because we agree with the president.”
One supply stated that holding a flooring vote on the nonbinding decision was recommended to management as a approach to keep away from the complications over votes compelled by Democrats, and that was not the favored possibility by management.
The dilemma for Republicans got here up in a gathering with management and different high Home leaders on Monday, two sources instructed The Hill. Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), who sits on the Guidelines Committee, raised considerations with having to vote on the Democratic-led modification — which has key variations from the GOP-crafted one — within the panel assembly and as an alternative advocated for voting on the Republican decision or a distinct measure for transparency, one of many sources stated.
A competing Epstein measure from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — one that may, if handed by each chambers and signed by the president, have extra tooth — is additional complicating the Epstein dynamic.
Massie and Khanna have pledged to drive a vote on their Epstein-release invoice by way of the discharge petition course of, if they’ll get 218 Home members to signal on. If all Democrats within the Home and all of the Republicans who’ve already co-sponsored the decision achieve this, they’ll again GOP management right into a nook.
Attributable to procedural guidelines, any vote wouldn’t happen till no less than after the Home returns from August recess in September — by which period many Republicans hope the Epstein furor could have died down.
However Massie — carrying a binder that learn “The Epstein Files: Phase 2” in reference to the infamous “Phase 1” binders that Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi distributed to MAGA influencers earlier this yr — expects there’ll nonetheless be an urge for food for that compelled vote.
“This is not going away,” Massie stated Monday.
Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise (R-La.) downplayed the importance of the logjam, saying the Home this week can nonetheless vote on suspensions and give attention to committee conferences and hearings.
“We still have a lot of other work to do,” he instructed reporters.
