Senate Republicans allowed a move Tuesday that puts Congress on the brink of forcing the public release of a massive trove of Jeffrey Epstein–related documents.
According to Fox News, the shift came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pressed the chamber to act quickly, hours after the House passed the resolution with overwhelming bipartisan support.
On the Senate floor, Schumer urged Republicans not to stand in the way.
“The Senate should pass this bill as soon as possible, as written and without a hint of delay,” Schumer said. “Republicans must not try to change this bill or bury it in committee, or slow walk it in any way. Any amendment to this bill would force it back to the House and risk further delay.”
No Republican objected to Schumer’s request, clearing the procedural hurdle without requiring a full roll-call vote.
The legislation, authored by Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ro Khanna of California require the Department of Justice to release all unclassified documents, communications, and investigative materials tied to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The bill mandates that the information be made available online in a searchable, downloadable format within 30 days of being signed into law.
While the issue roiled the House earlier this year — even prompting Speaker Mike Johnson to abruptly send lawmakers home during a tense showdown over the files — the Senate has been far less chaotic.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the measure had already been moving through the chamber’s hotline process, where senators privately signal objections before a bill reaches the floor.
“It’s the kind of thing, probably, that could perhaps move by unanimous consent,” Thune said before Republicans agreed to clear the way. He added that amending the bill was unlikely given its broad House support and the president’s stated willingness to sign it. “When a bill comes out of the House 427 to one, and the President said he’d sign it, I’m not sure that amending it is in the cards.”
The political dynamic shifted further over the weekend when President Donald Trump — who had spent months criticizing efforts to release the files — abruptly endorsed the Massie-Khanna proposal.
On Truth Social, he dismissed the uproar as a “Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics,” arguing that if Democrats had damaging information, they would have released it before what he called the GOP’s “Landslide Election Victory.”
Republicans in both chambers have warned that no identifying information about victims should be released. Johnson previously pushed for explicit protections to be written into the bill, but the Senate is not expected to alter the language.
Once the House formally delivers the resolution, it will be sent directly to President Trump for his signature, setting in motion the 30-day countdown for the public release of the long-sought Epstein files.
