In a significant development, the US House of Representatives is set to hold a full vote next week on a bill that would compel the release of long-withheld government files concerning the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Path to a Vote
House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the timeline, telling reporters on Wednesday that the legislation will be put to a vote as soon as the chamber reconvenes. “We are gonna put that on the floor for a full vote next week, as soon as we get back,” Johnson stated. This announcement came as the House gathered to debate a separate bill to reopen the US government.
Critically, the path for this vote was cleared just hours earlier by the swearing-in of Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva. She took her oath of office a full seven weeks after winning a special election in late September to succeed her father, the longtime representative Raúl Grijalva, who passed away in March.
Grijalva’s arrival provided the crucial 218th and final signature on a discharge petition, a procedural tool that automatically triggers a House floor vote on the legislation demanding the US justice department release the Epstein files. In her floor remarks, Grijalva declared, “Justice cannot wait another day. Adelante.”
Political Implications and Hurdles
Under the standard rules for such petitions, Speaker Johnson would not have been mandated to schedule the vote until early December. His decision to bring it forward to next week is therefore earlier than many political observers had anticipated. It is noteworthy that Johnson has publicly stated his opposition to the bill.
However, even if the bill successfully passes the House, its journey is far from over. The legislation must still navigate the Senate and receive the signature of President Donald Trump to become law. Currently, Senate leaders have given no indication that they intend to bring the bill up for a vote. Furthermore, President Trump has decried the entire effort as a “Democrat hoax”.
Wider Context and Other Developments
This push for transparency occurs alongside other revelations. On the same Wednesday, the House oversight committee released a tranche of approximately 20,000 pages of documents related to Epstein from its Republican members.
These files revealed that Epstein’s staff kept him informed of Donald Trump’s air travel plans as they related to his own transportation. The documents also showed that the convicted sex trafficker continued to follow news about his former friend Trump years after their relationship had soured.
In other key US political developments, the House voted to pass a funding bill, ending the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history, which President Trump signed into law on Wednesday night. Separately, Trump has threatened to sue the BBC over the editing of one of his speeches and has repeated a request to Israel’s president for a pardon for the embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
