Democrats may still have a procedural trick left to delay the end of the government shutdown, according to Rep. Andy Biggs on Newsmax on Wednesday, but he stressed that he expects a final vote will pass before midnight.
“It should be a done deal before midnight, but the Democrats have one little trick up their sleeve,” Biggs told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “[House Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries could get up and try to do one of his magic minutes that would last for many hours. We hope that he doesn’t.”
Biggs said he believes Jeffries, D-N.Y., understands that dragging out the debate would only damage his standing with the public.
The Arizona congressman added that Democrats have repeatedly prolonged the shutdown.
“I can only name two Republicans who voted to keep the government shut down,” he said. “But I can name you well over 40, almost 45 or more Democrats who voted to keep the government shut down 15 times.”
Turning to a new Senate provision in the government funding bill, Biggs called it “highly unusual” that senators could include language allowing them to sue over secretly obtained phone records related to former special counsel Jack Smith’s “Arctic Frost” investigation.
The provision would allow as many as nine Republican senators to sue the federal government and seek up to $500,000 in damages per case, plus attorneys’ fees, for each time their phone records were obtained by investigators.
Biggs said the measure raises constitutional concerns about the separation of powers and government overreach.
He noted that surveillance of lawmakers by the FBI and the special counsel’s office was troubling and not limited to the Senate. “You had members of the House who were also pursued in that way,” he said.
Biggs said Americans don’t just want wrongfully surveilled officials compensated, but they want those who weaponized government to face consequences.
“They need to be held accountable, not the taxpayer paying for him because [the] taxpayer was shafted,” he said. “I want to see prosecutions where prosecutions are warranted.”
The congressman also discussed the House Judiciary Committee’s oversight of efforts to release the remaining Jeffrey Epstein files, and said that the issue will continue to surface after the swearing-in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., on Wednesday.
This will give her the power to sign a discharge petition demanding full disclosure.
“It’s going to be an issue because Adelita Grijalva has said she’s going to sign the discharge petition, and that means that the speaker is going to have to act,” Biggs said.
He added that the committee’s central question is whether any unreleased material still exists. “If there is, then let’s make it transparent, and let’s get it out there.”
Biggs said he believes most of the documents have already been released, but acknowledged that the committee may still have to “deal with” the question if new material surfaces.
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