House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is warning lawmakers if they choose not to wear masks they will not be able to speak on the House floor.
“Members will not be recognized unless they are wearing a mask,” she said.
Pelosi tightens mask rules in House, says members on floor must wear them while speaking. “Members will not be recognized unless they are wearing a mask,” she said. Senate has no mandatory mask rules but all senators (except for Paul) wear masks. Most remove them while speaking
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 15, 2020
Pelosi began requiring House members and staff to wear masks in July, as IJR previously reported.
Pelosi penned a letter with Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and Attending Physician Dr. Brian Monahan to list the requirements and exemptions.
Some of the exemptions include “actually eating, drinking, or legally smoking,” being “in an enclosed office that no one else is permitted to enter,” the inability “to wear a face cover due to a medical condition or disability,” and “giving a speech or interview.”
Pelosi received backlash for failing to wear a mask during her visit to a San Francisco-area hair salon in September, as IJR previously reported.
“The Speaker always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements,” Pelosi’s office said in a statement.
It continued, “This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday [Aug. 31] and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business. The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment.”
President-elect Joe Biden revealed during a CNN interview he plans on asking Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office.
“It is important that we, in fact, the president and the vice president, we set the pattern by wearing masks. But beyond that, where the federal government has authority, I’m going to issue a standing order that in federal buildings, you have to be masked,” Biden said earlier this month.
He added, “My inclination is on the first day I’m inaugurated, I’m going to ask the public for 100 days to mask — just 100 days to mask, not forever. One hundred days.”