Southwestern Pennsylvania’s four members of the U.S. House all voted Tuesday afternoon in favor of a bill that would force the Justice Department to release its files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The U.S. Senate later agreed by unanimous consent to approve the bill. The procedural move does not require a roll-call vote as long as no members object.
President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson had opposed the bill for months, but the president reversed course late Sunday. In a social media post, he urged House Republicans to vote to release the files while insisting that he had “nothing to hide.”
The bill passed the House, 427 votes to 1. U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, was the lone member to vote against the bill. Five members did not vote, and two seats are vacant.
House members from Southwestern Pennsylvania — U.S. Reps. Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio, both Democrats, and Republicans Mike Kelly and Guy Reschenthaler — voted in favor of the bill.
“Today’s passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act puts every representative on record and brings us one step further to providing justice and transparency for the survivors and the American people. It is a testament to the power of the people who pressured their government to take action,” Lee, of Swissvale, wrote on social media after the vote.
Lee has been at the forefront of efforts to make Epstein-related files public. A member of a House Oversight subcommittee, she introduced a motion in July to subpoena the Justice Department for the full release of the Epstein files.
“The Department of Justice is already compelled to release the Epstein files to the Oversight Committee because of my motion to subpoena, and they have slow-walked their release for months. Trump also has the power to compel the DOJ to release the files immediately and has failed to do so,” Lee wrote on social media.
“Now, the Senate must take up this bill and it must be signed into law,” Lee added. “No matter how wealthy or well-connected, every person who is complicit, enabled, or abused women and girls will be brought to justice.”
In a statement explaining his vote in favor of the bill, Fox Chapel’s Deluzio said, “Nobody should be protecting predators and people who abused children.”
A spokesman for Kelly, of Butler, confirmed the congressman’s affirmative vote but did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for Reschenthaler, of Peters, and U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, and Dave McCormick, R-Pittsburgh, did not immediately respond to messages.
Trump told reporters Monday that he would sign the legislation into law if it made it to his desk.
