Having failed to successfully threaten the lives and families of enough representatives to force them to withdraw support from a bill that would compel the DOJ to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking ring, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has elected to prevent the House of Representatives from reopening for another week.
Informed readers will note that there is nothing preventing Speaker Johnson from reconvening the House during the shutdown, and that as Speaker he would be capable of blocking any bills put forth by lawmakers attempting to negotiate and end the shutdown.
They will also note that keeping the House from reconvening allows Speaker Johnson to delay swearing in newly elected representative Adelita Grijalva, who has pledged to be the final signatory of a petition that would compel Speaker Johnson to bring Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie's Epstein transparency bill to a vote.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5549384-johnson-house-closed-government-shutdown/>House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Friday that he won’t call House lawmakers back to Washington until the government shutdown ends.>“We will come back, and get back to legislative session, as soon as the Senate Democrats turn the lights back on,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol, as the lapse in funding stretched into a 10th day. “That’s the fact. That’s where we are.”>Johnson had canceled previously scheduled House votes on Sept. 29 and 30 — the last two days before the shutdown — and then again for the entirety of this week. The move was designed to maximize the pressure on Senate Democrats to support the GOP-led stopgap spending bill, which passed through the House last month. 