"More than three weeks after winning her congressional race, Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva never imagined her fight to get sworn into office would take this long. The Arizona Democrat has keys to her office, but not much else. "I have no staff ... The phones don't work. There's no computer," Grijalva says from her sparsely furnished office on Capitol Hill. "We don't have a government email.""
"It's a departure for Johnson, who has previously sworn in new members from both parties within days of winning their races. The Speaker had previously said he would swear in the winner of the Arizona race as soon as they wanted. He later said the winner should enjoy the "pomp and circumstance" that's part of the ceremony, but only available when the government is open."
Adelita Grijalva, Rep.-elect from Arizona, still has not been sworn into Congress more than three weeks after winning a special election for the state's 7th district. She has an office but no staff, working phones, computer, or government email. Speaker Mike Johnson says he will not swear her in until the government shutdown ends. Johnson previously announced he would swear in the winner quickly but later linked the ceremony to government operations and "pomp and circumstance." Grijalva's signature would be the 218th to trigger a bipartisan petition to force a House vote to release Justice Department files on Jeffrey Epstein. Critics accuse the Speaker of delaying to avoid that vote.
Read at www.npr.org
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