The Senate unanimously agreed to send the House-backed Epstein bill to President Trump’s desk on Tuesday, which came shortly after the House overwhelmingly voted to pass legislation to compel the Justice Department to release all its records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The chamber passed the bipartisan bill – known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act – in a vote of 427-1, with only Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) voting in opposition. The measure secured enough bipartisan support to head straight to the House floor last week, and was boosted over the weekend after President Donald Trump reversed his position and urged Republicans to support it.
The bill will force the DOJ to publicly release files related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of it being signed into law, with some exceptions for survivors’ personal information and other sensitive material.
The unanimous action by the Senate means there will be no amendments or changes to the bill, despite House Speaker Mike Johnson and other members of his Republican leadership team urging. Johnson – who originally opposed the effort but ultimately supported final passage — had said he expected the Senate to fix what he called “serious deficiencies” in the bill. While Johnson voted for the measure, he had argued that the bill doesn’t adequately protect victims of Epstein: “I talked to John Thune over the weekend. I just texted him. We’re going to get together and we’ll talk about this. There’s an easy way to amend the legislation to make sure we don’t do permanent damage to the justice system and I’m going to insist upon that.”
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