Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., along with several members of the House Freedom Caucus, announced that they would force roll call votes on a spate of upcoming suspension bills, effectively postponing the votes on thirteen relatively uncontroversial pieces of legislation.
According to CNN, these measures are typically passed by way of voice votes or unanimous consent. However, forcing a roll call vote on the measures would significantly lengthen the legislative process by up to ten hours due to the COVID-19 health restrictions enforced in the House.
Some of the bills on the table include awarding members of the Capitol Police Force and Washington Metropolitan Police Department with Congressional Gold Medals.
"The American people deserve to know where their member of Congress stands with a roll call vote," Greene said in a statement to CNN. "While thousands of illegal aliens are invading Biden's open border, American kids are losing their education with closed schools, thousands of small businesses have been forced to shut down, the People really don't care about politicians whining about voting and doing their job for 10 hours."
According to CNN, the suspension bills –– which aim to address issues like child abuse prevention and treatment, literacy, and credit management –– have nothing to do with issues that Greene is ostensibly protesting. In fact, three of the thirteen bills currently on deck were sponsored by Republicans.
As Salon's Ramsey Touchberry reported last week, even many members of Greene's own GOP are becoming increasingly frustrated with Greene's antics, which have needlessly stymied necessary votes. "Her act is starting to wear thin," one aide told CNN.
Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., told CNN that Greene's effort to stall the bills is fruitless. "I think this is an end result of what the House has become, what the posture of the House has become," Davis said. "I think what you're seeing with a lot of the shenanigans on the floor is because so many members have so much time on their hands to be able to go to the floor, and worry about what's happening with suspension bills rather than moving along, trying to look at legislating into the future."
Davis also told CNN that loosening House coronavirus restrictions might impede future efforts to stall proceedings like Greene's.
"I certainly hope that [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,] Leader McCarthy, all of us, we can sit down and work out a plan to reopen the House," Davis continued. "I think that's going to help us move ahead because when people see light at the end of the tunnel, then they're going to start planning for that light at the end of the tunnel, planning for the Capitol to reopen again, and leading us back to where we're still partisan, but we're not doing it in a way that just becomes sometimes childish."
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., are reportedly working together to set a concrete time for the measures to reach the floor
Other Republicans defended Greene's push to thwart the proceedings. "I think [Greene] is just doing her committee work," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. "That is her committee work."
Last month, The House voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments, ousting her from the House Education and Labor Committee, as well as the Budget Committee. Only eleven Republicans voted to remove her.
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