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Greene Fined a Third Time for Violating House Floor Mask Mandate

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speaks to reporters at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Pool via Reuters)

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) has been fined a third time for violating the House floor mask policy, the House Ethics Committee announced on Monday.

Greene has now accrued $5,500 in fines this year for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor. 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) first implemented a mask requirement on the House floor in July 2020. House Democrats later voted in January to make the mandate enforceable by fines. Members who violate the policy are fined $500 for the first offense and $2,500 for each additional offense. 

Greene and several of her Republican colleagues were fined in May for protesting Capitol Physician Brian Monahan’s refusal to lift the House floor mask mandate even after the CDC said that fully vaccinated people did not need to wear masks in most settings.

After her first violation, the congresswoman filed an appeal with the House Ethics Committee. However, the panel denied the appeal and upheld the fine. 

Dr. Monahan eventually lifted the mandate in June, only to reinstate it a month later amid rising concern over the highly transmissible delta variant. Since then, dozens of House Republicans have protested the mask requirement.

Greene was fined for a second time in August, a fine that she did not appeal.

The House Ethics Committee said Monday that Representative Andrew Clyde (R., Ga.) had been issued a $500 mask fine as well.

At least six other Republican lawmakers were previously fined for flouting the House floor mask mandate: Representatives Chip Roy (Texas), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Brian Mast (Fla.), Ralph Norman (S.C.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), and Beth Van Duyne (Texas).

Greene, Massie, and Norman previously filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge the constitutionality of the fines after the House Ethics Committee rejected their appeals contesting the fines.

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