A rule blocking Capitol Hill reporters from a key House floor hallway could be prolonged if a dispute over metal detectors is not resolved.
‘ENEMY IS WITHIN THE HOUSE’: PELOSI WARNS OF GOP SECURITY THREAT
The Speaker’s Lobby, a long historic corridor with portraits of past House speakers on the walls, is located directly outside the House chamber. It is a place where lawmakers often read the newspaper, take a phone call, or talk with reporters.
But at the beginning of the pandemic last year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi closed the lobby off to reporters to keep crowds of press gathering in the corridor.
Later, lawmakers were shooed out the exits by staff to ensure groups of members would not form.
Then, magnetometers were installed at every entrance to the House floor, including the entrances from the Speaker’s Lobby, immediately following the Jan. 6 riots by supporters of former President Donald Trump.
COVID-19 restrictions have gradually been lifted with updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following the vaccines. While Pelosi initially resisted lifting the mask mandate on the House floor, she relented this week. Additionally, lawmakers are no longer required to vote in small groups in order to maintain social distancing protocols.
However, the Speaker’s Lobby remains off limits to reporters as a result of the metal detectors installed around the House floor chamber entrances.
House Administration Committee ranking member Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, told the Washington Examiner that since some House COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, the metal detectors remain a barrier to press access.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill told the Washington Examiner that press access to the Speaker’s Lobby “is an item we are actively working on,” adding, “Hope to have update soon.”
While lawmakers are not required to walk through the magnetometers to enter any Capitol complex building like all staff, press, and visitors must do, members are required to walk through the House chamber’s scanners to enter the floor.
The metal detectors have become the focus of a monthslong battle between the speaker’s office and Republicans who say use of the equipment is unconstitutional and an obstruction to lawmakers who must often wait in long lines to vote.
Pelosi believed the metal detectors were necessary as a security measure following the attack on the Capitol and specifically described “members of Congress who want to bring guns on the floor” as “the enemy within the House.”
Violations of the security protocol by a House member will result in a $5,000 fine and a $10,000 fine for any subsequent penalty. Six lawmakers, five Republicans and one Democrat, have been hit with these fines.
Only two lawmakers, Republican Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, were able to appeal their fines successfully. Republican Reps. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Andrew Clyde of Georgia filed a lawsuit against the sergeant-at-arms over the metal detectors.
The ensuing dispute between Pelosi’s office and Republicans has left reporters without Speaker’s Lobby access as two of the metal detectors are located at two of its entrances.
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House staffers told the Washington Examiner there is already concern about the long lines of lawmakers attempting to enter the floor to vote and the delays the metal detectors are causing. The addition of press in these same lines, they say, could spell even more problems.
