Samuel asked us “1) First, what happens if a majority of a house of Congress wants to pass a bill, but the relevant committee doesn't bring it to a vote? Is there a way to override the committee, and if so, how does this work?”
The answer is that yes, there is at least one way: the “discharge petition.” (There are other ways, and since the House writes its own rules a majority of representatives can do almost anything by changing the rules, and that happens frequently. But for today we’ll stick to the discharge petition procedure.)
First, on Sept. 23, Arizona held its special election for its 7th district to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Raul Grijalva when he died earlier this year. His daughter [pictured above], Adelita Grijalva, won as expected.
The younger Grijalva is expected to be signature 218 on Rep. Massie’s (R-KY4) discharge petition which would bring to the floor a bill that would require the Trump Administration release files on Jeffrey Epstein. (It will put representatives on the record on Epstein files, but because the bill will likely die in the Senate it may not result in the release of the files.)
So what is a discharge petition? As the Congressional Research Service says,
“The House discharge rule (Rule XV, clause 2) provides a means for [legislators] to bring to the floor for consideration a public bill or resolution that has been referred to committee but not reported.”
It’s also a tool to bypass House Leadership which generally controls which bills come to the floor for action.In order for it to work though, the sponsoring legislator must demonstrate that the members want a chance to vote on the bill. The sponsor does this by gathering at least 217 cosponsors. The cosponsor list is managed by the Office of the Clerk of the House. Here is their record of cosponsors for Massie’s resolution.
For several years now, the Republican base has been demanding to see more information about Epstein. But, as we noted in a post on July 25, now that President Trump is in office again, he does not want to release more information. In support of the President, House Speaker Johnson has been doing everything he can, including shutting down House activity, to avoid having to take votes on more file releases.
Once that 218th signature is added, a privileged resolution forcing a vote on the bill will have to be dealt with one way or another within two legislative days.
There are still things that could gum up the works for Massie though. Cosponsors can take themselves off of a discharge petition. Only three other Republicans signed on and if any one of them decides to take their name off, then Massie will be stuck if he will have already gotten all the Democrats.
Also, Johnson could take the House out of session again. Or he could change the House’s rules to change how legislative days are counted. Johnson did this in April by adding a provision to a Rules Committee resolution that said:
Sec. 2. Each day during the period from April 9, 2025, through September 30, 2025, shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622) with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on April 2, 2025.
In this way, Johnson prevented House legislators from using the primary method of pushing a resolution to limit the President’s tariffs.
Finally, as reported by AZ Central, Johnson could refuse to swear in Grijalva until official results for her election are certified, which wouldn’t be for a few more weeks. It wouldn’t prevent her adding her signature forever, but it would delay it and you never know what might happen in the meantime.
Like a government shutdown. The Senate is expected back in session on Monday September 29 to try again to pass a continuing resolution. The House was supposed to be back, but there have been unconfirmed reports that the House won’t return until after the funding deadline passes, aka Oct. 1 at the earliest.
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