Posted on 07/29/21
| News Source: The Hill
Masks are once again emerging as a flash point on Capitol Hill after Congress’s top doctor issued new guidance and cases ramp back up due to the delta variant of COVID-19.
More than half a dozen Republican lawmakers refused to comply with a reinstated requirement Wednesday that everyone wear masks on the House side of the Capitol, which followed new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance the day before urging everyone in high-risk areas to wear masks.
Several Republican firebrands, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Chip Roy (Texas), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Andrew Clyde (Ga.), defiantly sat together near the center of the House floor sans masks, as nearly all the other lawmakers and staff around them complied with the rules.
A House floor staffer offered Boebert a mask, but she turned it down.
Republicans further forced roll call votes on motions to adjourn to slow down House floor proceedings in protest of the new mask rules.