By Jim Kinney | jkinney@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD – U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal expects a vote on releasing the Epstein files on Wednesday or Thursday, though what the Senate does remains unclear.
“I think we’re going to have a major vote this week and I’m of the opinion that this is going to secure a lot of Republican support as well,” Neal, D-Springfield, told reporters following an event Monday at the new Square One childcare center on William Street in Springfield.
The release of the files through a discharge petition is a “rather arcane” procedure in the Congress, but would make public a trove of documents related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and details of the man’s sex trafficking to the wealthy and powerful.
President Donald Trump was named in documents released this week.
Both local members of Congress – Neal and U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester – signed the discharge petition back in September.
Neal said four Republicans have signed on and 214 Democrats have as well.
“Then it will go over to the Senate, where at the moment it appears to be uphill,” Neal said. “I think that this is going to be a major issue as you go into next year and clearly there’s ample support in the House of Representative once this passes and then it moves to the Senate.”
Election post-mortem
Household economics, and continued high prices, drove Democratic victories this month in New Jesey, Virginia and New York, Neal said.
Neal, the ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, also reacted later Friday to word that Trump is walking back his tariffs, a signature aspect of Trump’s agenda.
Neal is one of the Democrats fighting tariffs in court.
Trump got rid on Friday of tariffs on a broad swath of commodities, including beef, coffee and tropical fruits. Neal said the step is a public admission that Trump’s trade war is hiking costs.
Since implementing these tariffs, inflation has increased and manufacturing has contracted month after month.
“The tariffs are a tax,“ Neal told reporters in Springfield. ”Tariffs should not be based upon the idea of punishing somebody you don’t like personally or politically, which is certainly the case in Brazil.” Neal said Trump imposed tariffs in retaliation for a TV ad from Canada and based upon elections that have taken place across Europe.
