LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Pressure is building for Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to swear in an Arizona Democrat elected to Congress weeks ago. Johnson says the government shutdown is to blame, but he's facing accusations from both sides of the aisle that he's trying to avoid a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisales has more.
CLAUDIA GRISALES, BYLINE: Arizona Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva has keys to her office but not much else.
ADELITA GRIJALVA: I have no staff. The phones don't work. There's no computer. We don't have a government email.
GRISALES: Grijalva won her seat to represent the Tucson, Arizona, border district on September 23 but is still waiting to take the oath of office. Once she's seated, she plans to sign onto a bipartisan petition to release government files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Her signature is the last one needed to force a House vote.
GRIJALVA: I remember on election night, someone came up to me and said, I don't think they're going to swear you in because of those Epstein files. And I thought, oh, my gosh, that's very much a conspiracy theory. Like, that's not going to happen. And here we are 22 days later.
GRISALES: House Speaker Mike Johnson calls claims by Grijalva and others a partisan manufactured effort. He says Republicans are already working on releasing records through the GOP-led Oversight Committee.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE JOHNSON: The bulldogs in Congress are on that committee. And they're all joined together in a bipartisan fashion, digging through and releasing documents.
GRISALES: Johnson says he will not swear in Grijalva until the government shutdown is over.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHNSON: This is the process of the House. You do it as soon as you're able to do it.
GRISALES: But many in Arizona and beyond disagree, and the state's attorney general threatened legal action for the delays. Democrats have also taken to the House floor and Johnson's office, ramping up their demands this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Swear her in, swear her in.
GRISALES: Grijalva is the daughter of her predecessor. The late Raul Grijalva held the seat for more than 20 years until his death in March. She tears up when she considers what her dad would make of the fight over her swearing in.
GRIJALVA: I think he would just be kind of laughing (laughter) and scratching his head at, like, my kid is doing, you know, making a splash. Yeah.
GRISALES: Grijalva says her dad set a high bar in office with his constituents, one she hopes to follow when she's finally seated.
Claudia Grisales, NPR News, the Capitol.
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