A group of renegade House Republicans and Democrats deployed the same procedural trick used to force a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files to wrangle a vote on a measure to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) filed her discharge petition to force the vote on her legislation, a proposal that has been supported by an unexpected coterie of members ranging from progressives like liberal darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to archconservatives like Rep. Burchett (R-Tenn.).
Under the rules of the House of Representatives, a member can file a discharge petition on legislation to force a vote on their legislation as a way to get around Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and hold a vote. Once the petition receives enough signatures, they are locked in.
Afterward, seven legislative days must pass. Then Johnson must designate a time and place for the vote.
Lol Mike Johnson done fucked up. Discharge petitions essentially mean your own caucus hates you and can’t work with you, so they use the opposition to get around you. There have been like an average of about 1 of these per congress over the last 100 years, now we have two huge ones in just a couple months.
Speaking of:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/12/02/trump-epstein-files-countdown/87506171007/
DOJ: “yeah, we’re going past December 19th. Whatcha gonna do about it?”