Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) excoriated the House of Representatives during an impassioned speech on the House floor Wednesday and accused them of caring more about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) revised mask mandates than the crisis at the southern border.
“We have a crisis at our border and we are playing footsie with mask mandates in the people’s House,” Roy said, referencing the mask mandate reinstated for House members on Wednesday. “It’s absolutely absurd what this body is doing, the people’s House. It’s an embarrassment, a mockery, and the American people are fed up. They want to go back to life. They want to go back to business. They want to go back to school without their children being forced to wear masks, to be put in the corner, to have mental health issues.”
“And we’re running around here and the speaker comes down here at 10 in the morning saying we got to wear masks in the people’s house?” Roy continued, growing more agitated. “While we have thousands of people pouring across our border and Democrats don’t do a darn thing about it, heavily infected with COVID.”
“This sham of an institution is doing nothing for the American people, nothing for the betterment of the people that send their representatives here. I just met this morning with an organization that tries to take care of people from human trafficking, met with an elected official from Mexico, while cartels are raping and pillaging and killing.”
“And we have people infected with COVID coming through our southern border into Texas and you all put masks, masks up front here, here on the people’s House?” Roy said. “This institution is a sham and we should adjourn and shut this place down.”
Roy introduced a motion to adjourn, which failed by a vote of 197-225, with seven Republicans joining the majority.
WATCH:
Rep. @chiproytx: "We have a crisis at our border and we're playing footsie with mask mandates in the people's house… This sham of an institution is doing nothing for the American people." pic.twitter.com/gjgIo0nSV1
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 28, 2021
“The Capitol’s attending physician released new guidance on Tuesday advising both vaccinated and unvaccinated lawmakers, staff and reporters to wear masks throughout the Capitol as cities and states respond to new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” according to Forbes.
Because he entered the House chamber without a mask, Roy faces a potential $2,500 fine for running afoul of the new mandate.
GOP Rep. Chip Roy walks into the House chamber just now without a mask. He was previously fined $500 for going maskless in May, meaning he could face a $2,500 fine this time around.
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) July 28, 2021
As Forbes reported, “Republican lawmakers long railed against the last mask mandate and are likely to do the same for this one. Several racked up $500 fines by refusing to wear masks on the House floor in May after the mandate was lifted for the whole Capitol complex except the chamber. Those fines will go up to $2,500 if the same lawmakers protest the new mandate.”
Roy’s fiery speech echoed one he made in July 2020, when he described the House of Representatives as “an absolute embarrassment” for “politicizing a virus.”
“If there were leadership, we would have actual debate,” Roy said in part. “We would actually sit down here and come up with ideas, and offer solutions, and then hammer them out. We would actually sit down at a table like a small business or sit down at a table like a family and balance a budget. We would have a debate about the proper policies to deal with a pandemic instead of pointing fingers and politicizing a virus.”