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House plans to vote Tuesday on releasing Epstein files

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House Republican leaders are planning to hold a vote Tuesday on legislation to force the release of federal files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss internal plans ahead of a public announcement.

The tentative scheduling decision follows a successful effort by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to sidestep Speaker Mike Johnson and force a floor vote on their bipartisan bill to compel the Justice Department to release all of its records related to the late convicted sex offender.

President Donald Trump has made repeated attempts to kill the effort, which continued in a series of Truth Social posts Friday. But Johnson said Wednesday he intends to move quickly to hold the vote and put the matter to bed.

Under the current GOP plan, the House Rules Committee would approve a procedural measure Monday night to advance eight bills for floor consideration, including language to tee up the Epstein legislation. If that measure is approved on the floor, likely early Tuesday afternoon, debate and a final vote on the Epstein bill could immediately follow. GOP leaders are considering whether to postpone the Epstein vote until Tuesday evening.

Scores of Republicans are expected to break ranks and support the bill, which would then have to be approved by the Senate and signed by Trump to take effect. Neither is likely, but the process could drag out for weeks, extending the controversy over Trump’s ties to Epstein.

Epstein said in a 2019 email released by the House Oversight Committee this week that Trump “knew about the girls” he was trafficking, but Trump has denied wrongdoing and there is no evidence has suggested that Trump took part in Epstein’s trafficking operation.

The four Republicans who signed on to the discharge petition forcing the vote — Massie, plus Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — are likely to examine Johnson’s moves very closely. They could together block any procedural measure that would undercut the Epstein legislation, postpone it or otherwise alter it.

That would freeze the House floor just as GOP leaders are trying to bring the House back for an aggressive work schedule following a seven-week recess ordered by Johnson amid the record government shutdown.

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Congress

House Republicans eye next week for housing bill vote

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House leadership is eyeing the week of Feb. 9 for a vote on a bipartisan housing package, according to four people with direct knowledge of the planning.

Senior lawmakers have also been mulling whether to consider the widely supported bill under suspension of House rules, which would expedite passage of the legislation, said three of the people who were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

However, plans for the bill are not locked in and could be subject to change as the House deals with a partial government shutdown.

The Housing in the 21st Century Act, which overwhelmingly advanced through the House Financial Services Committee in December, is part of a push by Congress to pass legislation that could address a growing housing affordability crisis. The bill includes 25 provisions that aim to increase the housing supply, modernize local development and rural housing programs, expand manufactured and affordable housing, protect borrowers and those utilizing federal housing programs, and enhance oversight of housing providers.

House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) said Friday that he’s pushing for the Housing for the 21st Century Act to receive a floor vote expeditiously.

”I hope that that bill can come to the House floor in just a few days. I really am pushing for that, I think it’s the right decision,” Hill said on Bloomberg Radio.

The Senate’s housing bill, the ROAD to Housing Act, passed the upper chamber as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act but may be put to a separate floor vote. If the House is able to pass its own version by a wide margin before the Senate, it could have additional leverage for negotiations with the upper chamber for a final bill. Hill and other House Republicans have said the Senate bill, which received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate Banking Committee, has a number of provisions that would not be acceptable among House GOP members.

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Bill and Hillary Clinton now agree to testify before Congress

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Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an Oversight aide said Monday evening.

It’s a remarkable reversal for the former president and secretary of state, who were adamant they would defy committee-issued subpoenas and risk imprisonment by the Trump Justice Department as the House prepared to vote Wednesday to hold them both in contempt of Congress.

After both skipped their scheduled depositions earlier this year, the Oversight Committee voted on a bipartisan basis in January to approve contempt measures for each of them.

Although both have said they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, they have maintained that the subpoenas were not tied to a legitimate legislative purpose, rendering them invalid. They also complained the GOP-led exercise was designed to embarrass and put them in jail.

It is not immediately clear when they will appear and if the House will continue to pursue the contempt votes.

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Top House Democrats split on funding vote

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Senior House Democrats are going in different directions on a massive funding bill headed to the House floor as soon as Tuesday, underscoring the sharp divisions inside the Democratic ranks on the $1.2 trillion spending package.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday she would vote for the funding package when it goes to the floor Tuesday — breaking with a large swath of colleagues who oppose the measure over its extension of Homeland Security funding, including immigration enforcement operations.

“I will support this package,” DeLauro said during Monday meeting of the Rules Committee. She noted it secures funding for the five-full year, bipartisan bills and extends funding at current levels for DHS for 10 days.

DeLauro said without the DHS stopgap Democrats “won’t be able to bring the kinds of pressure” necessary to make changes to the full-year DHS bill they’re negotiating with the White House.

But Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Democrat, said he was dead-set against the bill due to the DHS funding.

“I will not vote for business as usual while masked agents break into people’s homes without a judicial warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment,” he said.

Neither leader, however, is expected to vote for a key procedural measure setting up a final debate and approval for the massive bill, which passed the Senate on Friday. That measure, known as a rule, is also expected to tee up contempt-of-Congress votes on Bill and Hillary Clinton over their decision not to fully cooperate in a Oversight Committee probe into Jeffrey Epstein. GOP leaders are scrambling to build support for that measure as some in their ranks agitate for amendments, including the attachment of a partisan elections bill.

“Republicans have a responsibility to move the rule, which, by the way, includes a wide variety of other issues that we strongly disagree with,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Monday.

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

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