Washington, D.C. — On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson cancelled all votes in the House of Representatives until at least October 14. The cancelled votes means that Johnson can continue to delay the swearing-in of Adelita Grijalva, who won a special election in Arizona that sets her up to be the decisive 218th signature needed to force a House floor vote on Rep. Thomas Massie’s and Rep. Ro Khanna’s Epstein Files Transparency Act. Demand Progress is leading a campaign that so far has driven Americans to send around 290,000 messages and make more than 4,000 calls asking Congress to get the Epstein files fully released.
The following is a statement from Demand Progress Senior Policy Advisor Cavan Kharrazian:
“Speaker Johnson is willing to keep the government shut down for two more weeks, which conveniently delays the impending vote on releasing the Epstein files. By cancelling House votes, Johnson is single-handedly prolonging the government shutdown while shielding some of the world’s most wealthy and powerful people from accountability for being in league with a convicted child sex trafficker. The nation is in crisis. It’s time for the speaker to stop playing political games, come back to work, swear in Adelita Grijalva and finally let Congress vote on releasing the Epstein files.”