A rescission package that would codify roughly $9 billion in Department of Government Efficiency cuts is in limbo over a completely unrelated issue: Jeffrey Epstein.
House Republican leaders are not putting the legislation to a vote yet over concerns that lawmakers may advance amendments to the bill that would involve releasing documents related to the Epstein case.
Republican members of the Rules Committee have expressed discomfort with rejecting certain amendments to compel the release of Epstein investigation documents, and the House is currently in a holding pattern over the bill. Of course, Republicans have to figure out the situation quick.
While a Rules Committee meeting has been set for 6 p.m. Thursday, that’s no guarantee Republicans will move forward immediately. If the hearing goes smoothly, Republicans could get the House onto the rescission bill by late Thursday night. If it doesn’t, the next 30 hours could be long.
After huddling in Johnson’s office, Rep. Ralph Norman, a conservative who sits on the panel, told reporters that leadership and committee Republicans reached a solution to address Epstein — though he did not specify what that solution might be. A hearing notice went out around 5 p.m.
The 45-day deadline for the rescission package expires when Friday becomes Saturday, and Republicans are already nervous that Democrats may be able to delay consideration long enough to turn the bill into a legislative pumpkin.
Republicans are hoping to finish the rescission bill late Thursday, which would keep the measure away from the July 18 deadline. But they’re also hoping to get the bill done Thursday because that would preserve a legislative day and potentially allow them to duck a vote on a resolution related to Epstein next Thursday.
Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie have offered a bipartisan discharge petition that would force the House to have a vote on the complete release of files related to the Epstein case, two people familiar told NOTUS. When lawmakers have to vote on that discharge petition depends entirely on whether the House is in session on Friday.
If the House meets on Friday, the resolution will ripen next Thursday — the last scheduled day the House is in session before the August recess. If lawmakers don’t meet Friday, leaders can sort out the Epstein mess over the next month and a half. They would much prefer that alternative.
Massie posted on X Thursday that there are at least nine Republicans already signed on to his discharge petition. Most Democrats, if not all, support efforts to release details about the case, seeing that the situation isn’t going away and it’s driving a wedge between the MAGA movement.
“The Republicans are nervous about having to be on record again voting to block the release of the Epstein files,” Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, told NOTUS. “This is ridiculous.”
Republican leaders have floated the possibility of offering their own amendment on the Epstein files, but it would be nonbinding and wouldn’t necessarily lead to the release of any documents. McGovern said Democrats wouldn’t go for that.
“They think people are stupid,” McGovern said of Republicans. “People are not stupid. People want action. They don’t want words. They want action.”
When it goes to a vote, the rescission package is expected to pass with near-unanimous Republican support. Vulnerable Republicans who expressed some discomfort with the House-passed rescission bill said they prefer the Senate’s amended version, which stripped cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program.
“It’s a better bill, and I still got the assurance from the speaker that it will give local public media funding,” Rep. Don Bacon told NOTUS. “Now, I think the headquarters may take a hit, but I want to do what I can to help protect the local public media.”