Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., faces a $2,500 fine for continuing to refuse to wear a mask in defiance of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House mandate.
Greene, who is suing over a previous $500 fine for not wearing a mask, was among several GOP lawmakers who protested against the mandate being reinstated in July by the Office of the Attending Physician, The Hill reported.
Chip Roy, R-Texas, was fined $500 for a similar offense. Lawmakers are given a warning for a first offense before fines are imposed.
The latest fines were disclosed Wednesday by the House Ethics Committee.
The Hill reported that House members can file appeals with the Ethics Committee to contest the fines, but neither Greene nor Roy had done so.
Greene, fined $500 in May for declining to wear a mask on the House floor, appealed that penalty but her motion was denied by the committee.
Roy, reserving the possibility to take legal action, said that he didn’t file an appeal because he didn’t think it would go very far.
“Filing an appeal to tyrannical overlords is a futile gesture, and — if successful — would leave one without standing to sue, should the mood arise,” Roy said in a statement, The Hill reported.
Besides Greene and Roy, five other Republican lawmakers have been fined for ignoring the House floor mask requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic. They include Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Brian Mast, R-Fla., Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa.
Greene, Massie, and Norman challenged the constitutionality of the mask fines by filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Those three Republicans appealed the fines but did not dispute that they had declined to wear masks. Instead, they argued that the facial coverings weren’t necessary or that the fines were unconstitutional.
Most Republicans have complied with the House floor mask mandate after it was reinstated in late July, but the majority of GOP members and their staff have ignored the mask mandate in other parts of the Capitol.
Lawmakers are allowed to remove their masks when speaking during House floor debate.
Pelosi, D-Calif., first instituted the House floor mask mandate in July 2020 after numerous Republicans refused to wear masks, including one who subsequently tested positive for COVID-19, The Hill said.
In January, House Democrats voted to make the mask mandate enforceable by fines. Greene was among several Republicans who were maskless while lawmakers stayed in a crowded secure room during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
The mask mandate was removed in June but reinstated a month later due to the surge in COVID cases caused by the delta variant.
Several lawmakers have been fined for failing to complete security screenings before entering the House chamber.
Those fines start at $5,000 for the first offense and $10,000 for a second one, The Hill said.
