House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Thursday unvaccinated House members should not come to the House floor to vote but should vote from the gallery, regardless of her masking rules.
“I mean, we could come to a place where we could say, ‘If you don’t want to wear a mask and you don’t want to…if you’re not vaccinated, then don’t even come to the floor.’ We have facilities up above in the gallery where people can come to vote,” she said. “We don’t want to deter anybody’s ability to exercise their constitutional duties.”
The House voted 218-210 along party lines Wednesday to turn down House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) effort to repeal a mask mandate for lawmakers in the House chamber in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) mask guidance for House floor proceedings.
“No,” Pelosi replied. “Are they all vaccinated?” she snapped on May 13 when asked if she would change the rule requiring masks on the floor:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi told me “no” she isn’t changing the rule requiring masks on the House floor.
“No,” Pelosi said. “Are they all vaccinated?”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 13, 2021
The CDC updated its guidelines May 13 as follows:
— Wendell Husebø (@WendellHusebo) May 13, 2021
Pelosi’s answer came after 33 House Republicans signed a letter on May 13 asking Pelosi to normalize voting procedures and return to maskless House requirements Thursday.
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