Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva will formally become a member of Congress on Wednesday before the House votes on legislation to reopen the government.
House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) office said Grijalva would be sworn in during the afternoon. Democrats have been demanding her swearing in for weeks since Grijalva won a special election in September to fill the seat of her late father, former Natural Resources Chair Raul Grijalva (D). The House has only been holding pro-forma sessions during the shutdown.
“I would be the final vote on releasing the Epstein Files and they don’t want them out,” Adelita Grijalva wrote on social media last month about the delay in her joining the House. “The American people deserve transparency and accountability!”
But the speaker’s office responded, “As is standard practice, with the House now having received the appropriate paperwork from the state, the Speaker’s Office intends to schedule a swearing in for the Representative-elect when the House returns to session.”
