After 50 days of ready, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn into Congress Wednesday, bringing an finish to a contentious chapter in the US House of Representatives that included a lawsuit and rising tensions inside the Capitol over her seating.
Speaker Mike Johnson had said he wouldn’t swear in the Arizona Democrat amid the authorities shutdown till the House returned to legislative session, a delay that prompted outrage from Democrats. The swearing in occurred after the chamber reconvened to vote on a Senate-passed invoice to reopen the authorities.
While she waited to be sworn in, Grijalva had been unable to carry out primary constituent providers and even open an workplace in her southern Arizona district. She hasn’t had a working workplace cellphone, an workplace price range or the skill to make use of authorities methods. Residents of the sprawling district had been with out a vote in Congress.
“I’m basically a tourist with an office,” Grijalva told NCS final month, standing in her empty workplace at the Capitol.
Now Grijalva will finally be capable of stroll onto the House flooring with out being escorted and be a part of her colleagues as a member of Congress.
The timing of her swearing in has additionally been carefully watched as a result of she is poised to develop into the decisive 218th member in of help an effort to pressure the House to vote on the launch of all of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, a problem that has roiled the House and sparked division amongst Republicans.
Democrats have argued that Johnson delayed swearing Grijalva in as a result of she could be the deciding signature that might set off the flooring vote and pointed to different cases the place Johnson moved rapidly to swear in Republicans who gained their particular elections.
“The only thing that’s different about me and the three other people that this speaker swore in in under 24 hours from the date of their elections is I’m the 218th signer,” Grijalva instructed NCS final month.
Johnson has defended his choice to delay Grijalva’s swearing by arguing that she gained her race on September 23 when the House was already out of session and had vowed to swear her in as quickly as the House returned.
“Just as I promised, as soon as we get back to legislative session, so before we have this vote that we are talking about, she will be administered the oath,” Johnson instructed NCS’s Jake Tapper on Monday.
The House has been out of session since September 19, as Johnson put strain on Senate Democrats to compromise with Republicans and vote to finish the authorities shutdown.
As the shutdown dragged on, the strain on Johnson to swear in Grijalva mounted. Arizona’s Democratic senators received right into a hallway confrontation with Johnson over the challenge and different Democrats staged protests exterior of the speaker’s workplace. Arizona’s lawyer basic even sued the House of Representatives over the delay, a transfer that Johnson dismissed as “patently absurd” and a bid for publicity.
Grijalva crammed the seat vacated by her father, the late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, who represented the district in Congress for greater than 20 years earlier than he died after a battle with most cancers in March. Running on the power of her household identify, she sailed to victory in the Democratic main this summer time after which defeated Republican Daniel Butierez in the particular election, capturing roughly 70% of the vote.
“It’s been a really long wait. Incredibly frustrating,” Grijalva stated on NCS on Monday.
Grijalva stated the hardest half about delaying her swearing in was being unable to assist her constituents throughout the longest authorities shutdown in historical past.
“I’ve really missed the opportunity to be able to help constituents that are here that need services. So it’s been very difficult to sit it out while people come up to me and ask me for help,” she stated.