The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Three GOP lawmakers fined $500 for defying House mask rules amid Republican backlash: ‘Worth it.’

Fines and warnings were handed down to a group of Republican lawmakers who were seen maskless on the House floor on May 18. (Video: The Washington Post)

As the House finished voting on Tuesday afternoon, a group of Republicans gathered on the floor, smiled and huddled for a selfie. None wore masks.

They were among about a dozen Republican lawmakers who openly defied last week’s decision by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to keep a mask mandate on the House floor until all lawmakers and staff are vaccinated.

Now three of those GOP lawmakers — Brian Mast (Fla.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), a physician, and Beth Van Duyne (Tex.) — face $500 fines for breaking the rules, a Capitol official told The Washington Post. All three were fined because this was the second time they defied the mask mandate, while seven other Republicans were issued a first warning.

Some of the Republicans boasted about the fines on Tuesday. “I have been fined $500 by @SpeakerPelosi for following CDC guidance,” Mast later tweeted. “This was never about science. It has always been about power.”

Van Duyne wrote, “Worth it,” along with a fire emoji.

The rebellion is the latest barrage of GOP criticism against the House’s mask mandate, which 34 GOP lawmakers urged Pelosi (D-Calif.) to drop in a letter last week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that vaccinated Americans can mostly ditch their masks indoors.

Pelosi, though, has said the mandate will not be relaxed while roughly 25 percent of the House remains unvaccinated. Some Republicans, meanwhile, have argued they have antibodies after contracting covid-19 or have said they simply won’t take the vaccines.

Tuesday’s protest marks the latest partisan clash over coronavirus restrictions in Congress, which have led to arguments on the Senate floor about masking rules, disagreements over which type of thermometers should be used and most recently demands from GOP House members to fully reopen the Capitol to the public.

House members could get a coronavirus vaccine. But a quarter of them have not.

As lawmakers debated on the House floor on Tuesday, Mast was approached by a staff member of the sergeant-at-arms because he was not wearing a mask, he told Fox News. Mast said a Democrat lawmaker whom he could not recognize because she was wearing a mask later scolded GOP officials for not wearing face coverings.

“She was saying we should all be ashamed of ourselves and started yelling at us, and then told us all to get out of her face even though we weren’t really talking to her,” he told Fox News.

After the votes on Tuesday, a maskless Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — who has said she will not be vaccinated snapped a selfie along with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Rep. Mary E. Miller (R-Ill.), and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who were also maskless.

“#FreeYourFace Masks are oppressive and nothing but a political tool,” Greene captioned the selfie she later posted to Twitter. “End the oppression!”

Miller retweeted her selfie and wrote, “Enough is enough! #FreeYourFace.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) called for an end for Pelosi’s “dumb, arbitrary, and outdated” House floor mask mandate.

Following the CDC’s revisions on mask-wearing, Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician to Congress, said last week that the mask mandate will continue on the House floor “until all Members and floor staff are fully vaccinated.” Monahan’s updated guidelines also noted that per the CDC, “recovery from natural infection is not equivalent to completion of a vaccination.”

The seven GOP lawmakers given a first offense warning for not wearing a mask on the House floor on Tuesday included Boebert, Massie, Miller, and Greene, along with Rep. Chip Roy (Tex.), Rep. Bob Good (Va.), and Rep. Louie Gohmert (Tex.).

Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.

Coronavirus: What you need to know

Vaccines: The CDC recommends that everyone age 5 and older get an updated covid booster shot designed to target both the original virus and the omicron variant. Here’s some guidance on when you should get the omicron booster and how vaccine efficacy could be affected by your prior infections.

Variants: Instead of a single new Greek letter variant, a group of immune-evading omicron spinoffs are popping up all over the world. Any dominant variant will likely knock out monoclonal antibodies, targeted drugs that can be used as a treatment or to protect immunocompromised people.

Tripledemic: Hospitals are overwhelmed by a combination of respiratory illnesses, staffing shortages and nursing home closures. And experts believe the problem will deteriorate further in coming months. Here’s how to tell the difference between RSV, the flu and covid-19.

Guidance: CDC guidelines have been confusing — if you get covid, here’s how to tell when you’re no longer contagious. We’ve also created a guide to help you decide when to keep wearing face coverings.

Where do things stand? See the latest coronavirus numbers in the U.S. and across the world. In the U.S., pandemic trends have shifted and now White people are more likely to die from covid than Black people. Nearly nine out of 10 covid deaths are people over the age 65.

For the latest news, sign up for our free newsletter.

Loading...