The House speaker doesn’t want Republicans to be around when the deadline comes.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is conveniently sending Congress home the day before the Justice Department is supposed to release the Epstein files in full. The announcement came Wednesday night.

This looks like yet another instance of Johnson doing every little thing he can either to delay the release of the files or to make it so that his fellow GOPers don’t have to be in town to answer to their complicity in this monthslong campaign to avoid their release—as he did by egregiously delaying the swearing-in of Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva for weeks.

“Like I said: view all political developments for the rest of the week in light of the fact that the Epstein Files are supposed to be released on Friday,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote Wednesday evening on X. “House Republicans just suddenly canceled Congressional session Friday and are sending everyone home Thursday evening.”

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          22·
          23 hours ago

          Pension for them is like 5 years or something absurd like that.

          A pension is available to members 62 years of age with 5 years of service; 50 years or older with 20 years of service; or 25 years of service at any age. A reduced pension is available depending upon which of several different age/service options is chosen. If Members leave Congress before reaching retirement age, they may leave their contributions behind and receive a deferred pension later.[1]

          • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
            3·
            17 hours ago

            That’s actually a pretty standard public service pension schedule.

            Mine had me vesting in 5 years, but the contributions at that point aren’t high enough to mean much. It just means that if if I didn’t make it 5 years the city wouldn’t contribute to my retirement ( I put in 7 and the coty double-matches, so I get 21%). When I hit 5 years, I retroactively got the 14% from the city for my previous 5 years added to my pension. If I had quit before the 5 years, I’d have been given my 7% back as a cash payment after 5 years away from public service.

            But I can’t collect until I reach retirement age or have 20 years of service.