On Thursday, the House clerk recorded 15 roll calls as Congress prepared to get out of town for the final lurch into the midterm campaigns. They began with Mark DeSaulnier’s Mental Health Matters Act, meant to increase access to mental health by, among other things, increasing the number of school-based mental health services. With the GOP always yowling that mass shootings are the fault of the mentally ill, you’d think they would support a bill like this— and, in fact, one did— Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. 205 Republicans voted against it. It passed 220-205.
Obviously, Marjorie Traitor Greene (Q-GA)— who was just served with divorce papers by her husband— voted against it. Less obvious is that she voted against every bill, but 3, that came up, even the bills that were backed by her party’s leadership and even the bills that were overwhelmingly supported by her Republican colleagues. HR 8888, Mary Peltola’s first bill, the Food Security for All Veterans Act, wasn’t just backed by Kevin McCarthy and 158 Republicans, it was backed by hard core Gang Greene members like Lauren Boebert (Q-CO), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Cynthia Tenney (R-NY), Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Beth Van Duyne (R-TX). It passed 376-49, anti-patriots like Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Scott Perry (R-PA), Mary Miller (Q-IL), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Gym Jordan (R-OH), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Bob Good (R-VA), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Ronnie Jackson (TX), Andrew Clyde (R-GA) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX) siding with Greene against U.S. veterans.
Two of the three bills Greene voted for passed unanimously, a Republican-originated bill from Senator Jim Lankford (R-OK), the End Human Trafficking in Government Contracts Act and a Republican-originated bill from Senator Tommy Tuberville increasing life insurance for families of servicemen and women killed on duty. The other was the Maximizing Outcomes through Better Investments in Lifesaving Equipment for Health Care Act, which passed 414 to 7.
Early in the day, she led 8 other Republican kooks in opposing the bipartisan SBIR and STTR Extension Act which reauthorizes the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The 9 Republican extremists who voted against it were Greene and Gaetz (Mr and Mrs Anomie) + Andy Biggs (AZ), Dan Bishop (NC), Mo Brooks (AL), Thomas Massie (KY), Tom McClintock (CA), Ralph Norman (SC) and Chip Roy (TX).
Greene and 72 other far right Republicans voted against the Chai Suthammanont Healthy Federal Workplaces Act, which passed with all Democrats and 132 Republicans, 351-73. Obviously, healthy federal workplaces is exactly what far right extremists oppose and this one would require each federal agency to develop and maintain a plan that details public health protocols the agency will take during a health declaration and must include guidelines for testing, cleaning, occupancy limits, use of personal protective equipment, notification of individuals who may have been exposed, and protections for employees who travel off-site.
Greene and 28 other GOP reactionaries tried stopping the Artificial Intelligence Training for the Acquisition Workforce Act, which passed 393-29. Again, it was the craziest and most destructive of the lunatic fringe joining Greene against this: Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Scott Perry, Bob Good, Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar, Jody Hice, Louie Gohmert, Gym Jordan, Mary Miller… the nut crowd that wants nothing to do with Artificial Intelligence training for anything else that smacks of any kind of intelligence.
She voted against the bipartisan Visit America Act which implements measures to support the U.S. travel and tourism industry and to address the declining percentage of international visitors to the U.S. She was joined by 92 other wing nuts who fear this will lead to gun safety legislation.
Pete DeFazio’s Global Aircraft Maintenance Safety Improvement Act addresses safety standards related to foreign aircraft repair stations and it passed 374-52, Greene and 51 other extremists all in on airplane accidents. Even Gaetz abandoned her on this one!
You get the picture! It went on like that for the rest on the day— and into Friday! She voted against the CR-- as did most Republicans-- meant to keep the government open.
Comments