The House is following through on the plan to fine lawmakers serious money for refusing to go through or otherwise blowing off the metal detectors placed at the entrance to the House chamber. The increased security was installed following the attack on the Capitol building that forced members to flee for their lives—and following some Republicans dropping strong hints that they had been carrying guns into the House in violation of existing rules.
Republicans responded to the metal detectors with predictable outrage and entitlement, going around them or setting them off and then pushing past Capitol police who tried to investigate. When Rep. Andy Harris was found with a gun, he tried to simply hand it off to Rep. John Katko, who responded that he wasn’t licensed. Rep. Don Young handed his wife what appeared to be a knife after setting off metal detectors.
The efforts to evade detection are going to stop or the offenders will face a $5,000 fine for the first infraction and $10,000 for each subsequent one. If they don’t pay up voluntarily, it will be deducted from their paychecks. Many members of Congress are very wealthy, but even so, a stream of $10,000 fines is going to add up.
The House vote to impose the fines was 216 to 210, with three Democrats joining all Republicans in opposition. The NRA still isn’t going to like you, guys.
House Rules Committee Chair Jim McGovern identified what had brought things to the point of fines, citing the “elitist mentality” in which “Some are acting as though by being elected to Congress, they have been anointed to some sort of special club—one that gets to pick and choose what rules to follow.”
I’m pretty sure many congressional Republicans didn’t need to be elected to federal office to believe they got to pick and choose which rules to follow, but being in Congress definitely makes it worse. A lot worse, as when Rep. Madison Cawthorn told New York’s Olivia Nuzzi that coming into Congress was like being a character in a fantasy novel when “They’re handed a wand. And you as the viewer, you don’t exactly know what they can do with that wand, but you know it holds incredible power. That’s a lot what it’s like coming into Congress, because there’s really no limitations onto what you can and cannot do in Congress. Aside from what the Supreme Court will allow you to do.”
Well, now Cawthorn—along with Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Green and Andy Harris and all the rest of them—knows that even his powerful wand does not allow him to carry a gun into the House chamber.
