WASHINGTON — Rep. Louie Gohmert has been fined $5,000 for bypassing metal detectors at the U.S. House, becoming one of first two GOP resisters punished under a rule enacted after the Capitol riot.
Lawmakers who bypass the metal detectors face a $5,000 fine for a first offense and $10,000 for each offense after that. If lawmakers don’t pay within 90 days, the fine will be deducted from their paychecks.
For repeat offenders, that could add up. The salary for rank and file House members is $174,000. And scofflaws are not allowed to pay the fine with campaign funds or their House office budget.
The House adopted the rule Tuesday on a 216-210 vote. All Republicans voted against it, including Gohmert of Texas, and Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who has also been fined, according to senior House aides cited by multiple news outlets on Friday.
Gohmert, a tea party conservative elected in 2004, did not respond to a request for comment.
“We’ll be appealing because this is ridiculous. This isn’t ‘The Godfather’ where you plant a gun in the toilet tank,” Gohmert told Axios. “There is no toilet tank in the bathroom.”
Lawmakers have the right to appeal to the Ethics Committee within 30 days. He would only escape the fine if a majority of that panel agrees.
The metal detectors were installed at each entrance to the House floor after the deadly riot on Jan. 6. Some Republicans, including Gohmert and Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, immediately resisted, bypassing the checkpoints on their way into the chamber.
On Tuesday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that anyone who bypasses the new security measures is “disrespecting our heroes by refusing to adhere to basic precautions keeping members of our congressional community safe.”
“It is beyond comprehension why any member would refuse to adhere to these simple, common sense steps to keep this body safe,” she said.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is considering a lawsuit against the rule, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
“This is an unconstitutional deprivation of my right to defend myself. Period. Full stop,” Roy said. “I do not care what Speaker Pelosi says about it. I do not care what anybody says about it. That is what the Second Amendment means. That is why it is there.”
Democratic House leaders decided to require lawmakers to pass through metal detectors after some Republicans inquired about carrying firearms on the House floor in the wake of the insurrection.
Weber called it a “performative and useless move by Dem leadership.”
But Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, disagreed.
“House Republicans refusing to walk through a metal detector are unwilling to accept circumstances to which they daily subject many teachers & students by blocking meaningful gun safety reforms,” Doggett wrote on Twitter.
