Erin Scott/Pool via AP
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has received fines for not wearing a mask in the House at least 20 times.
- The fines add up to a total of $48,000. She has the option to appeal.
- The congresswoman opposes vaccine and mask mandates.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has accumulated a total of 20 fines with a sum of $48,000 for refusing to wear a mask in the House Chamber over the past year, a spokesperson for Greene confirmed to Insider. The fines were first reported by The Hill.
Mask mandates were first mandated in the House in July 2020 following Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert's positive COVID-19 test.
Greene has been vocal about her opposition to mask and vaccine mandates. Republican Reps. Byron Donalds, of Florida, Chip Roy, of Texas, Lauren Boebert. of Colorado, and Andy Biggs, of Arizona, and at least 20 others have also deliberately gone maskless in the House Chamber as a form of protest since the mask mandate was reinstated due to the rise of the Delta variant, a more contagious variant of the coronavirus, this past July, according to CNN.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, masks are an effective tool to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the risk of infection.
Greene's office provided Insider with a letter from the US House of Representatives Sergeant at Arms, William Walker, that was sent to Greene on October 28.
According to the letter, Greene was not wearing a mask on May 18, 2021, which resulted in a warning. The following day, May 19, she was also not wearing a mask, resulting in an initial fine of $500. All fines after that have been $2,500 each.
"You have been observed not wearing a mask on July 29, August 2, September 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, and October 1, 12, 19, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, and 27, and have been asked by a member of my staff to wear a mask while in the Hall of the House of Representatives on each occasion unless recognized to speak by the chair," Walker wrote in the letter acquired by Insider.
Greene has the option to appeal the fines up to "30 calendar days or five legislative days, whichever is later, after the notification," according to the letter. She appealed at least one of the fines, which come out of her paycheck, but the appeal was rejected, according to CNN.
"I will continue my stand on the House floor against authoritarian Democrat mandates because I don't want the American people to stand alone," Greene said in her press statement.
-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) November 1, 2021