Democrats blocked release of epstien files

Question

Representative Tim burchett claims that if it werent for democrats blocking it, a vote would've passed to "release the epstein files".

I see similar things being said by the NY Post: Democrats blocked GOP efforts to fast-track vote on Epstein files to keep issue alive longer, Republicans charge

Considering most of the news about the epstein files is about republican senators breaking from the administration in order to release the files, what does this mean? Are dems actually blocking the release or is there something missing here?

Answer 1

This claim is false as both republicans and democrats voted yes to release the files. They had a near unanimous vote in both the house and the senate. Most of the sources mentioned in the claim were from bias right winged sources. The senate voted unanimously to fast track the bill. 

source: https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cvgmrrrrlvmt

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/house-vote-full-epstein-files-release-move-speaker/story?id=127593181

Answer 2

From my findings there was one instance of the democrats blocking a fast-track bill called the "Epstein Files Transparency Act", the bill Burchett is referring to. The failure to pass the bill with unanimous consent has been covered almost universally by conservative media outlets, such as the New York Post and other smaller sites. It seems that the democrats did that to maintain the spotlight on the Epstein files, but it's hard to find anything substantive that corroborates that.