Johnson again keeps House at home, Grijalva still not seated a month after CD7 election

A month after winning a landslide election, U.S. Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva still can’t get to work — because the House hasn’t seated her yet. And she’ll likely remain in limbo, with Speaker Mike Johnson keeping the House out of session for a fifth consecutive week.

The speaker is “blocking me from serving,” Grijalva said over the weekend.

“Republicans know that once I’m sworn in, it won’t just chip away at their razor-thin majority — I will become the decisive 218th signature to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files,”she said in a message to supporters.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has indicated she’s preparing a lawsuit, to ask a federal judge to order that Grijalva be able to take office. That suit may be filed this week.

Grijalva — the first Latina elected to Congress from Arizona — won 69% of the vote in the Sept. 23 special election to fill the CD 7 seat left vacant when her father, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, died last spring from cancer.

While the House routinely seats new members immediately when an election isn’t in doubt, Adelita Grijalva hasn’t been able to be sworn in and get to work. 

The delay means she can’t open an office in Tucson or Washington, nor hire staff. After the former congressman’s death, the CD 7 office remained open with staffers doing constituent work — helping with veteran’s benefits, Social Security issues and other matters are at the core of local district office functions — under the supervision of the House Clerk’s Office. But the CD 7 offices were instructed to close as of Election Day, in preparation for the seating of a new member.

Johnson has not set a date for Grijalva to be seated. The House has been holding brief “pro forma” sessions daily while the speaker has told members to carry out “district work periods” each week for the past month. The last day the House held regular business on the floor was Sept. 19.

On Friday, he announced that Monday, Oct. 20 through Sunday, Oct. 26 would be another week without a regular session of the House.

During the daily pro forma sessions — which last only three or four minutes — the GOP leadership have refused to recognize any Democratic representatives in order to forestall a motion to seat the new congresswoman from Southern Arizona.

Grijalva said last Tuesday that Johnson “has exhausted every excuse to delay my swearing-in.”

She blamed his reluctance to seat her on her promise to be the 218th
and deciding signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on House
legislation to release files related to deceased financier Jeffrey
Epstein, who died in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019
shortly after he was arrested on sex trafficking charges.

“I am
simply asking him to abide by the same precedent he set when he swore in
his Republican colleagues within 24 hours of their special elections
and during pro forma sessions earlier this year,” Grijalva said last week. “Any further delay reveals his true motive:
Speaker Johnson is stalling because he knows I will be the 218th
signature on the discharge petition to release the Epstein files.”

The New York Medical Examiner and Federal Bureau of Prisons ruled
Epstein’s death a suicide but that determination has been met with
public skepticism. During his 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump said
he would “probably” release files related to Epstein but so far, the
files released from the Justice Department have mostly been documents
that were already public.

Legislation in the House of
Representatives to force the release of the Epstein files has stalled,
but 218 signatures on a discharge petition would force Johnson to allow a
vote on the House floor. Grijalva noted Johnson swore in other members of Congress who won
special elections right after their districts voted, without waiting for
official results or final vote counts. U.S. Rep. James Walkinshaw, a
Virginia Democrat, was seated last month just a day after winning his
special election. Under the U.S. Constitution, the House of
Representatives is the sole judge of the qualifications of its members,
and congressional procedures dictate that a new member is seated by a
vote of that body — generally by unanimous consent.

Democrats have pointed out that the House not being in regular session has not been a barrier to having new members take their seats and begin work. Earlier this year, Johnson swore in two Florida Republicans within 24
hours of their victories in special elections, during pro forma
sessions.

Grijalva was on the House floor on Sept. 30 – one week after her
election – hoping to be sworn in. The Republican presiding over the
chamber ended the pro forma session in just under three minutes,
ignoring Democrats’ chants of “Swear her in!”

Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, at the beginning of October that he would schedule
Grijalva’s swearing-in ceremony when Congress returned from recess on
Oct. 7, but because of the ongoing government shutdown that started on
Oct. 1, he has kept the House of Representatives in recess.

Two weeks ago, Johnson told U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, both Arizona Democrats, that he would not swear Grijalva into office until the government reopens.

Johnson has halted all substantive business in the House of Representatives since the shutdown, repeatedly announcing on Friday afternoons that the next week
would be another “district work period.”

Last Tuesday, Arizona state officials formally certified the election, declaring the results of the outcome. Democrats have pointed to the finality of the election canvass as removing any excuse for not seating Grijalva, although it’s rare that a new member of Congress is not immediately seated if an election is not in dispute.

Mayes threatens suit, some Republicans say Grijalva should be seated now

U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California Republican, has said the House should return to work — which would allow for Grijalva to be seated. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a MAGA Georgia Republican who has stridently backed the move to force the release of the Epstein files, said Johnson was being “sketchy” about not swearing in the Arizona Democrat.

“I don’t think there’s any justification for the House being out of session,” Kiley said Friday. “The House has its sort of ordinary business of the people it should be
carrying out. And the fact that there’s a government shutdown is not a
reason to suddenly neglect all of that.”

“It’s way past time for Mike Johnson to stop the political games and seat Adelita without delay,” AG Mayes said last Tuesday. She sent a letter to Johnson, giving him two days to seat Grijalva or face a lawsuit.

That deadline passed, and Mayes has yet to file a suit, although she has indicated it may be filed early this week.

“The House of Representatives’ uniquely democratic function makes frustrating the will of the voters in selecting their representative particularly egregious,” Mayes wrote to Johnson. “With the House in possession of the certificate of election, it is now a simple ministerial duty to administer the oath of office. … The House is without authority to refuse her oath and admission.”

“You and your staff have provided ever-shifting, unsatisfactory, and sometimes absurd stories as to why Ms. Grijalva has not been sworn in,” the Arizona attorney general wrote. “In a particularly worrisome comment, an aide connected the swearing-in and admission to the ongoing budget fight, suggesting that the House is trying to use Arizona’s constitutional right to representation in the House as a bargaining chip.”

“It’s frustrating,” Grijalva told the Sentinel back on Oct. 3. “My election doesn’t change the
majority. We don’t have an office; we can’t do any constituent services.
I can’t hire staff.”

“I have to be escorted everywhere” in the U.S. Capitol, she said. “I don’t have my (congressional) pin. I can’t go anywhere.”

“Everything’s on hold,” Grijalva said.

Johnson had earlier indicated that Grijalva would be seated in the first week of October.

“We
will do it immediately early next week as soon as everyone returns to
town,” he told CBS at the beginning of the month. “We have to have everybody here and we’ll, we’ll
swear her in and I congratulate her on her win. She is replacing her
father who had a long history here and she’ll be a productive member of
Congress.”

Instead, Johnson has kept the House in recess for two more weeks, with another week of no regular session work coming.