Topline
House lawmakers are set to return to Washington this week and likely bring an end to the six-week government shutdown—potentially paving the way for more of the government’s files on Jeffrey Epstein to be released.
Rep-elect Adelita Grijalva celebrates after winning her special election on Sept. 23 in Tucson, Ariz.
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Key Facts
House lawmakers are expected to vote Wednesday on legislation that would end the ongoing government shutdown, which will mark the first time in more than 50 days that the chamber has been in session.
Before the House votes, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is expected to swear in Rep-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., who has controversially still not taken office yet despite winning a special election on Sept. 23.
Grijalva’s swearing-in has been considered a flashpoint in the debate over the Epstein files, as she will be the key vote needed to move forward legislation to release the Epstein documents.
Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., have been trying to bring legislation to the House floor to release the Epstein files, but their discharge petition that would allow the bill to move forward needs 218 votes—with Grijalva set to provide the 218th signature.
Once Grijalva gets sworn in and signs the discharge petition, that will start a process to bring the measure for a vote in the House, which Johnson has already said he’ll honor—though that doesn’t necessarily mean the Epstein files will be released, as the bill would still have to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Donald Trump.
The government shutdown ending could also separately help the House Oversight Committee, which has been receiving Epstein files from the Justice Department and making them public, as reports indicate the DOJ has not been turning documents over during the shutdown.
How Will The Discharge Petition Work?
A discharge petition is a mechanism that allows legislation to bypass the traditional process of having to go through a committee before it can be brought to the full House, allowing bills that would otherwise get voted down by a House committee to still pass the full chamber. Once Grijalva becomes the 218th signatory on the discharge petition, it gets put on a discharge calendar, and must remain on the calendar for at least seven legislative days. After that seven days, a lawmaker who signed the petition can then notify the House of their intent to bring the discharge motion to the floor, and Johnson must schedule it to be introduced on the floor within two legislative days. It’s at that point that the full House would consider whether to pass the legislation. Given the House will be out of session for part of November due to Thanksgiving, that process would likely tee up a vote on the Epstein files bill by early December, Politico notes.