A variety of U.S. House members from both parties spent months pushing Speaker Mike Johnson to let the chamber vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Every step of the way, the Louisiana Republican balked.
Proponents, however, didn’t just lobby the chamber’s leader, they also settled on a strategy that circumvented the speaker’s office: Members launched a discharge petition, knowing that if they could get 218 signatures, they could force a floor vote, whether Johnson liked it or not.
The tactic worked, the measure received 218 signatures, the bill passed easily, and it’s now law.
Complicating matters for the House speaker, the maneuver that was once considered obscure is suddenly becoming rather popular on Capitol Hill. Politico reported:
Over the course of decades, House lawmakers had succeeded only a few times in triggering votes on bills the chamber’s leaders refused to call up. Then Mike Johnson became speaker. On the Louisiana Republican’s watch, the ‘discharge petition’ has caught fire. Rank-and-file lawmakers have managed five times since he won his gavel two years ago to circumvent Johnson’s wishes by getting the 218 signatures needed to force votes on legislation he had blocked — more than in the prior 30 years combined.
The use of this procedure is likely to keep growing: Late last week, a bipartisan coalition of pro-Ukraine lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, announced that he and his allies have “officially notified both the Clerk of the House and House leadership of our discharge petition to force a vote on crushing Russian sanctions immediately upon our return” from the Thanksgiving holiday recess.
Given the trend, GOP leaders have a solution in mind. Does it involve a more productive legislative process? Perhaps more opportunities for members to work their will? No, the new plan is to curtail the use of discharge petitions. Axios reported last week that Johnson is “weighing a crackdown” on the procedure, with the speaker telling the outlet that, as far as he’s concerned, it’s become “too common.” The same report quoted House Majority Leader Steve Scalise endorsing “a higher threshold” for the maneuver. (The current threshold is a simple majority of House members.) Time will tell what, if anything, comes of these efforts, but Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who helped spearhead the effort related to the Epstein files, said last week that he and his allies “won’t let” Johnson alter the existing procedure. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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