After the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has his hands full with several high-profile issues, such as the full release of the files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the push for a congressional stock trading ban.
The House is slated to be in session all five weekdays this week, with votes scheduled every day, as Republicans look to make up for lost time after being in recess for nearly two months during the government shutdown.
Beyond scheduling a vote on releasing Epstein files, as well as working through a backlog of legislation, working out a deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, and finishing up nine appropriations bills, the House is also expected to vote to repeal a provision slipped into the Senate’s government funding deal that allows senators to sue the federal government for surveilling them without their knowledge.
The provision, which was tucked into the funding patch at the last minute, irritated several House Republicans ahead of the lower chamber’s own vote on the government funding deal. As a solution, Johnson assured members that he would bring forward a “stand-alone” bill this week to repeal the provision in an effort to ease tensions.
“We had no idea that was dropped in at the last minute, and I did not appreciate that, nor did most of the House members,” Johnson said last week.
Johnson has said he will bring up the measure under suspension of the rules, meaning it can pass immediately as long as it receives two-thirds of votes from the chamber. The speaker said he didn’t ask for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to commit to bringing the stand-alone bill to the floor in the upper chamber.
The provision related to eight GOP senators who were subpoenaed without notice by former special counsel Jack Smith in his Jan. 6 investigation, also known as “Arctic Frost,” allows them to sue the federal government for at least $500,000 each. The senators are Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) has been outspoken about repealing this provision. She has also been a key figure in efforts to ban congressional stock trading and has pushed for a vote on her bill to do so, saying she will introduce a discharge petition in an effort to force the speaker to schedule a vote on the legislation.
The House Administration Committee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday that will include a discussion on banning members of Congress from trading stocks. The hearing will feature Taxpayers Protection Alliance Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs Dan Savickas and Manhattan Institute Director of Legal Policy and Senior Fellow James Copland.
A hearing does not guarantee any legislation will be brought up, as the committee has not scheduled a markup on any bill to pass it out of committee.
“Congress has noticed a hearing on insider trading, however, we have NOT heard anything on if they will be bringing the bill (Restore Trust in Congress Act) to the committee to STOP the insider trading of members of Congress. I REALLY hope they do the right thing,” Luna wrote on X. “However, WE (some democrats & republicans) have a plan B just in case.”
The speaker has expressed his support for the ban, but that does not mean he will bring the issue up for a vote. Luna told reporters last week that her discharge petition, a tool typically used by the minority party to force a vote on an issue that can reach 218 signatures, is already ready to be introduced if a markup is not filed soon.
“It’s already filed and ready to go, so I can call it up whenever, if it’s not being noticed,” Luna told the Washington Examiner.
Another discharge petition, with bipartisan support, hit its 218th signature last week when Johnson swore in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) after 50 days. Moments after being sworn in, Grijalva signed the discharge petition brought by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). The petition had been sitting at 217 signatures, one short of the ability to call a vote after seven legislative days, and has been a thorn in the side of Johnson and President Donald Trump. Grijalva joined all Democrats in signing it, as well as Massie and GOP Reps. Nancy Mace (SC), Lauren Boebert (CO), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA).
Johnson is not required to call a vote until early December, as he is given seven legislative days for the petition to “ripen,” but he vowed last week that he would call up a vote as “soon as we get back,” setting up the vote for this week. Massie and Khanna have predicted that 40 to 50 Republicans will vote for the bill, even though they did not sign the discharge petition.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act would require the Justice Department to make all relevant files publicly available, with victim protection.
Trump, House GOP leadership, and the DOJ have sought to move past the Epstein files following public fallout from when the department announced after the July Fourth weekend that it had no plans to make any further documents available and affirmed that Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges related to the sex trafficking of minors.
House passage does not guarantee the Senate will schedule a vote on the bill, but some Republicans believe that the more support shown on the floor, the more pressure that will be added on Thune to call a vote on the measure.
JOHNSON AND THUNE AT CROSSROADS OVER ‘ARCTIC FROST’ SURPRISE IN SHUTDOWN BILL
“I think that’s why we need a big vote,” Massie told reporters when asked if the Senate would bring up the bill for a vote.
The Senate has previously voted on the issue, after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) forced a floor vote on the Epstein files using a procedural tactic. Schumer’s effort failed, with the Republican-led Senate voting 51-49 to table it.