A discharge petition demanding a House vote on a second Epstein files bill reached 218 signatures on Wednesday, the number needed to pry the measure out of committee and force it onto the floor over the objections of House leadership.
Rep. John Garamendi of California was the final signer, according to the House Clerk’s official ledger for Discharge Petition No. 27. Rep. Adam Smith of Washington had become the 217th signer on Tuesday.
The tally combines every Democrat in the House with exactly four Republicans: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who filed the petition on Aug. 31, Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
The petition discharges the House Rules Committee from further consideration of H.Res. 1430, the rule carrying the Epstein Files Transparency Act II (H.R. 9694). Once a discharge motion ripens, it can be called up on the floor, and Speaker Mike Johnson cannot block it. Johnson opposed Massie’s first Epstein petition and urged Republicans not to sign it.
The vote the petition guarantees is not an immediate one. Under House Rule XV, a discharge motion must sit on the Discharge Calendar for seven legislative days before it can be called up. With the House in session Nov. 9-12 and Nov. 16-20, the earliest realistic window for a vote opens in late November, with the first week of December the likeliest landing spot.
The calendar leaves little room for delay. The petition dies when the 119th Congress ends on Jan. 3, and all four Republican signers are lame ducks who leave the House that day — Massie after losing his primary, Mace and Norman after leaving to run for governor, and Fitzpatrick after losing his general election. All four remain full members until then. Federal funding also expires Dec. 11.
The bill itself, introduced July 15 by Massie, Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, would give Epstein survivors, state attorneys general, other authorized state prosecutors and members of Congress legal avenues to sue the Justice Department over records unlawfully withheld, excessively redacted, delayed or concealed, with expedited review in court.
The effort follows the first Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed the House 427-1 on Nov. 18, 2025, after Massie’s first discharge petition forced that vote, and was signed into law on Nov. 19, 2025. The Justice Department has released about 3.5 million pages of records under that law. Supporters of the new bill say the releases amount to only about half of what the first law required, and that much of what has been released is heavily redacted.
OHIO
Five Ohio members signed the petition, according to the Clerk’s ledger: Rep. Shontel M. Brown, the 7th signer; Rep. Joyce Beatty, the 8th; Rep. Emilia Strong Sykes, the 80th; Rep. Greg Landsman, the 97th; and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the 113th.
All five are Ohio’s Democratic representatives. No Ohio Republican member of the House signed the petition.
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