3 House GOP Members Lose Appeal Over $500 Mask Fines

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Three Republican U.S. Home members have misplaced appeals difficult fines for not sporting face coverings on the Home flooring earlier this 12 months.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Home Ethics Committee launched statements noting that U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina had failed of their appeals of $500 fines issued in Could.

The Republicans challenged the fines in June, arguing that the mandate was out of sync with current federal steerage on face coverings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The vote in query occurred every week after the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention issued steerage noting that “absolutely vaccinated folks can resume actions with out sporting a masks or bodily distancing.”

On the time, face coverings have been nonetheless required on the ground, a mandate put in place by Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi in June 2020. Even after the up to date CDC steerage in Could, Dr. Brian Monahan, Congress’ attending doctor, wrote that “masks requirement and different pointers stay unchanged till all Members and flooring workers are absolutely vaccinated.”

“I voted on the Home flooring with out sporting my masks,” Norman wrote. “I did so as a result of I used to be following the path of our nation’s prime scientists that absolutely vaccinated people don’t have to put on a masks.”

In her attraction, Greene known as the effective “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and in any other case not according to regulation or with rules of equity.”

A handful of Republican lawmakers have been fined. Greene, Massie and Norman, together with Rep. Mary E. Miller of Illinois, took a maskless selfie on the Home flooring.

On June 11, the requirement was lifted, with Monahan writing that absolutely vaccinated members, workers and guests to the chamber might shed their masks. Norman stated in his attraction that he has been absolutely vaccinated since February. Each Greene and Massie have stated they haven’t taken the vaccine.