The House of Representatives has rejected a Republican move to repeal a mask mandate for lawmakers in the chamber following new federal guidelines that state fully vaccinated individuals are no longer required in most settings to wear face coverings.
The House voted 218-210 along party lines Wednesday to turn down the resolution House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tabled calling on the attending physician to direct Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to adopt the CDC’s mask guidance for House floor proceedings.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 13 updated its guidance on the wearing of masks to state Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer need to wear masks indoors or outdoors in most scenarios.
McCarthy said in a statement announcing his resolution that they as elected officials have a responsibility to send the message to Americans that they believe in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and Pelosi’s reluctance to update the House’s rules “will only help to sow distrust in the vaccines.”
“Vaccinated Americans should have the confidence to return to their pre-pandemic routines, and the federal government should help reinforce trust in the vaccine,” he said. “This should start with our leadership in Congress.”
Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s spokesman, called McCarthy’s resolution “a sad stunt” intended to distract from the Republican Party “descending into pure chaos.”
He also accused McCarthy of introducing the bill the same day the House was voting on establishing a commission into the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol.
“After announcing his new opposition to this commission, which was negotiated and called for by his own members, the Republican minority leader is throwing everything at the wall as he tries to stave off internal mutiny,” Hammill said.
The House’s rule is consistent with the CDC’s prevailing mask guidance, he said, stating if McCarthy wants to remove his mask while in chamber he should work to vaccinate the members of his party.
“Far from inhibiting our work, the mask requirement ensures that the House can debate and pass legislation safely and effectively,” Hammill said.
Brian P. Monahan, the attending Capitol physician, said in a document on Wednesday that the House has received special medical consideration for the continued use of masks.
“Extra precautions are necessary given the substantial number of partially vaccinated, unvaccinated and vaccine-indeterminate individuals,” the document states. “Additional medical safeguards are required to reduce the risk of coronavirus outbreak in this vital group.”
At least two Republican lawmakers in the last few days have been fined $500 for violating the mask mandate: Reps. Brian Mast of Florida and Beth Van Duyne of Texas.
“Worth it,” said Van Duyne.
“This was never about science,” said Mast. “It has always been about power.”
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If republicans had any brains, or balls, they would take the masks off, and refuse to pay any fines.
Then piglosi and co, would just force the IRS To garnish wages or bank accounts..
They should refuse and dare Pelosi to do anything about it. She thinks she’s big and tough with that gavel but she’s just and ugly old stupid wimp.
That hammer needs to go up the hag’s backside…F-in control freaks don’t fallow the science!
I would refuse to pay the fines. Secondly, why would any Republicans in the House wear masks after they have had covid (they now have antibodies to the disease) or after they have been vaccinated for covid. The Republicans that have had the above mentioned and who still wear masks, are gutless cowards.
So many of them have been spotted in public not wearing one—now, they want to make it mandatory in the Chamber.
Here’s your sign: STUPID
AND why should WE THE PEOPLE get the bloody vaccine, when cretins like her, KEEP SHOWING “EVEN IF You are vaccinated, we will permanently make you keep wearing a mask”!//
BY their own actions, they show the vaccine is NOT WORTH a damn…
That picture of pelosi looks a little like hitler, wonder if they’re related.
Could be ancestrally Susan, and that would make things quite interesting, but ideologically, I would be bold to say, definitely. I have to wonder if the house Dems had their own gavels, would they have shouted “Sieg Heil”, raising gavels, “saluting” her back as she “triumphantly held up that gavel she so loves?
Did you really think that power hungry Pelosi would budge on this issue? She loves POWER to much to let it go.
Once again, she is showing how stupid she is.
I do not usually have much to say against pelosi but hope all her ice cream melts..
Personally, i’d love to toss her IN A FREEZER, seal it shut, and leave her inside!
The fear-mongering, dictatorial Democrats have designated the wearing of the face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was caused by the Communist Chinese government’s egregious failure to prevent the spread of the deadly virus that has so far resulted in nearly 3.5 million deaths world-wide, as a sign of submission to the Democrats’ draconian restrictions that adversely affect the economic and personal lives of all American citizens (illegal aliens are exempt from the left’s pandemic restrictions). The mask symbolizes the Democrats’ power to control our lives and they will brazenly ignore science and common sense in order to maintain their control.
So why doesn’t the party of traitors & pussys refuse to OBEY???? The commucrats OBEY nothing–not the constitution, not the Bill of Rights, not the law in any way, shape or form and get everything they want including murder.
The Dems need to masks so they can continue their Glue Sniffing, so they can make it to the end of the day.
It’s fine with me if the Democrats continue to wear their masks on the floor of the House and out in public, they will cover their lying mouths, of course we will still see their lyin’eyes!
Well, as we saw today in the white house.. THE MASKS wearing only seems to apply TO REPUBLICANS> Not to the demmented dems.
It is to be expected that a witch (Nancy) would be flying high; gloating over her victims.