Senate Majority Leader John Thune has dismissed Speaker Mike Johnson’s request to amend the Jeffrey Epstein disclosure bill, asserting that the legislation was already adequate. Johnson had expressed hope that the Senate would make amendments to enhance protections for victims and whistleblowers, but the Senate swiftly passed the bill by unanimous consent, incorporating no revisions. This marks another significant hurdle for Johnson in his efforts to reform the bill, which had already faced setbacks when a rank-and-file Republican defied his opposition campaign.
While Johnson remains determined to insist on changes, the Senate’s legal team concluded that the current language of the bill was sufficient to meet its objectives, prioritizing the swift disclosure of information. Thune’s refusal to amend the bill was just the latest setback in the Epstein saga, where Johnson saw a rank-and-file member of his own party, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), pull off a stunning legislative end-run despite the speaker’s months-long opposition campaign.
Johnson said after House passage Tuesday that he would ‘insist upon’ changes. ‘I talked to John Thune over the weekend. I just texted him. We’re going to get together. We’ll talk about this,’ Johnson told reporters as he left the floor. ‘There’s an easy way to amend the legislation to make sure that we don’t do permanent damage to the justice system. And I’m going to insist upon that.’
Asked if he would press Trump to veto the bill if the Senate didn’t amend it, Johnson said he would ‘cross that bridge’ if necessary. He also raised ‘national security’ concerns about the bill Tuesday.
Thune said Senate Republican lawyers examined the legislation and determined it could go forward without being amended. ‘Our lawyers obviously had looked closely at some of the issues and had concluded that the bill I think was, you know, sufficient to accomplish what needed to be done here, and that is to get the information out there as quickly as possible,’ Thune said.
Earlier this week, Johnson told reporters he had received ‘some comfort’ from the Senate that the chamber would make the changes. But Thune never publicly indicated he expected the Senate to revise the bill and even warned earlier Tuesday that changes were unlikely.
The only short-lived whiff of resistance that appeared in the Senate Tuesday came from Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who appeared to raise concerns at the last minute but did not block the effort. ‘We were trying to see if we needed to change language to protect the victims,’ Mullin said to reporters.
Shortly before Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sought unanimous consent to greenlight the bill, Mullin said that there had been a ‘conversation’ with the administration about what the Oklahoma Republican characterized as ‘technical changes,’ which ultimately didn’t get made.