The success of the forced Epstein files vote is emboldening some Republicans to go it alone

By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson may want to put the Jeffrey Epstein saga behind him, but some Republicans saw rank-and-file members’ success in forcing Tuesday’s vote as an opportunity to push their own legislative priorities to the floor — even if it doesn’t have leadership’s blessing.

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has put House Republican leaders on notice that unless they change their approach to a bipartisan bill banning lawmaker stock trading, she will circumvent them using a discharge petition and force a vote herself.

In a recent interview in her office, the Florida Republican told CNN the overwhelming support from lawmakers to release the Jeffrey Epstein files should encourage more members to take advantage of the leadership-bucking tool that made the vote possible.

“I think more members need to use it,” Luna said. “More members need to get outside of this mentality that you have to go and ask for permission from leadership to bring legislation. That’s not why you’re here. And that defeats the purpose of why you call yourself a representative. If you want to be a follower, call yourself a follower of Congress, but not a representative of Congress if you’re not doing your job.”

Typically, the majority party’s leadership team dictates floor activity, setting the calendar for which bills are brought and when.

Discharge petitions face many procedural hurdles (to start, it requires 218 signatures — a majority of all 435 members, rather than a majority of members present) and rarely lead to an actual vote.

It’s even more unusual for a member to deploy the tactic when their own party is in power. But in a fractured Washington with razor-thin margins in the House, there are signs lawmakers may consider the strategy more seriously.

GOP Rep. Don Bacon recently signed onto a discharge petition to restore collective bargaining rights for federal workers after President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the practice. That petition just clinched the necessary 218 signatures needed to move forward toward a vote on the House floor. And this week, Bacon told CNN he is preparing to help launch another petition that would push for more aid to Ukraine.

“I respect the speaker and the majority leader drive the agenda. But the discharge petition process enables us to push member-driven initiatives to the floor for a vote,” Bacon said.

GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, who also signed onto the workers’ rights petition, said “it’s is certainly being viewed by members individuals as a tool in their disposal.” Still, he said, their use is “still very limited and it really depends on the issue.”

This year alone, lawmakers have brought 10 discharge petitions, with the Epstein files push standing as the most notable. Last Congress, under Republican control, 20 discharge petitions were filed, after 18 the Congress before. By contrast in the 116th Congress, from 2019-2020, only 5 such attempts were made. Only a handful became law.

Johnson had long tried to block the Epstein discharge petition from coming to the floor and strongly criticized the use of the tool to force a vote, even though he ultimately supported the measure.

“Discharge petitions are never a good idea. In the House, it is a tool of the minority party, not the majority,” Johnson said in July.

Acknowledging Johnson’s argument, Luna said, “A discharge petition is simply a legislative tool where we actually can collect signatures to bring something to the floor. It’s kind of an old school way of legislating.”

And the tool has helped her clinch legislative wins. The congresswoman’s threat of bringing a discharge petition helped her reach an agreement with Johnson in their standoff over proxy voting for new parents, an issue that had paralyzed the House.

“I will protect the discharge petition with every bone in my body,” Luna told CNN.

New push to ban stock trading

Now, Luna is prepared to use the same strategy to ensure the bipartisan push to ban stock trading of lawmakers, their spouses and their dependent children becomes law as pressure has escalated for elected officials to weed out corruption and restore public trust in Congress.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have long-traded stocks and seeking a ban has been a yearslong pursuit. But Luna says that she is running into new roadblocks that are clouding the process.

Instead of taking up the bipartisan bill that has 95 cosponsors, Luna said she has been informed that leadership wants to pursue their own bill and that members would not be allowed to add their own amendments.

“I’m just not feeling that this has been an open and honest process,” Luna said. “And so, I will make that decision collectivity with the other members who signed on.”

CNN has reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.

Luna said that House Speaker Mike Johnson has been understanding throughout this process, but she is giving leadership until Friday to address the issue with her.

“At the end of the day, I understand that he also has to manage other people and there’s a lot of personalities,” Luna said of Johnson. “This is not a popular topic on the Hill. In fact, it’s made me very unpopular within the House of Representatives but very popular among the American people.”

Even with the Friday deadline, Luna says her discharge petition is ready to go.

“It’s filed, so it means it’s baked, so I can call it up whenever. And that’s the element of surprise that we like to keep people on our toes. So it’s ready to go,” she said.

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