Washington – For 50 days, Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona had no budget and couldn’t hire staff or open up her offices. That changed this week when she was officially sworn in as the newest member of Congress.
“It’s been 50 days of waiting,” Grijalva said in an interview with CBS News after her swearing-in Wednesday. “And so the emotions run the gamut of frustration, anger, happiness, sadness, I mean, every emotion you can think of. It’s really an injustice for 813,000 people in southern Arizona to have not had a voice in Congress because of an obstruction from one person.”
Grijalva faults House Speaker Mike Johnson for holding up her swearing-in for seven weeks while the House was in recess.
Grijalva was elected to Congress in a Sept. 23 special election. But Johnson kept the House out of session from Sept. 19 until Wednesday of this week, when the body returned to vote on a Senate-passed bill to end a 43-day-long government shutdown. The speaker maintained that Grijalva couldn’t be sworn in until the House returns, drawing criticism from Democrats and a lawsuit from the Arizona attorney general.
“I think it was strategic,” Grijalva said of the delay. “I think that he was trying to prevent the release of the Epstein files. And I know that if I were a Republican, I would not have been waiting.”
Within minutes of her swearing-in, Grijalva became the final signatory needed for a discharge petition to force a vote to compel the Department of Justice to release all of its files pertaining to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I committed to it, and I believe very strongly that it is about getting justice for the survivors,” she said.
Johnson has indicated he may hold a vote on the matter as soon as next week. It’s not clear if the Senate will take it up if it clears the House.
The House speaker tried to smooth things over with Grijalva during a mock swearing-in ceremony Wednesday when asked about the delay in seating her.
“Look, I really like this lady,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters. “She may not agree with me, but we followed the custom of the House on the timetable, and we’ve had a little, as we say, in the Deep South, some intense fellowship about that, but she’s here now.”
Grijalva told CBS News she doesn’t buy the speaker’s explanation and pointed to other members who were sworn in quickly when the House was out of session. In April, Republican Reps. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine were sworn in a day after special elections in Florida, during brief “pro forma” sessions of the House. Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia was also sworn in a day after winning a special election in September.
“I think that we’ve seen that under this Speaker, he swore people in a pro forma in under 24 hours,” she argued. “I was elected before the shutdown. The shutdown has nothing to do with Congress opening.”
Johnson argues Fine and Patronis were special cases because the House “unexpectedly went out of session” on the day of their swearing-in, so Johnson went forward with the ceremony “as a courtesy to them” since their families had flown into town.
Grijalva enters her role as the federal government emerges from the longest shutdown in modern history. Congress passed a bill this week that will keep the government funded until late January.
“When I had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Speaker Johnson, I said, ‘Can we work towards an annual budget?” she recalled. “I mean, is that something unheard of for this administration because we can’t continue to do this again.”
Grijalva is the first Latina to represent Arizona’s seventh congressional district, a seat previously held by her late father, Rep. Raul Grijalva, who served in Congress for more than two decades. The veteran progressive congressman, who once chaired the House Natural Resources Committee, died in March of complications from cancer treatments.
Grijalva has been working out of his old office and believes he’d have a message for her as she follows in his footsteps in Congress.
“I think he’d be very proud,” she reflected. “Good for you, mi hija, keep fighting. Don’t let them push you around.”
