Rep. Louie Gohmert must pay a fine imposed on him for refusing to submit to a metal detector outside the House chamber last month.
A majority of the House Ethics Committee “did not agree to the appeal,” Chairman Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, and ranking member Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican, said in a statement.
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Gohmert, a Texas Republican, filed a written appeal after he was notified Feb. 4 by acting House Sergeant-at-Arms Timothy Blodgett that he must pay a $5,000 fine for “failure to complete security screening” prior to walking into the House chamber.
The chamber’s doors have since Jan. 12 been blocked by metal detectors installed by Democrats, who say they are fearful of certain Republican members wielding firearms on the House floor.
The move angered many Republicans, but Gohmert said he complied nonetheless.
It was when he exited the House chamber and went to the nearby men’s restroom that he missed a second security check. Gohmert reentered the chamber through the Speaker’s Lobby, where there are no metal detectors.
“There was no notice of a change in the requirement that once all the requirements were met and the House floor entered, that I would have to be wanded upon returning from the restroom mere feet from the Speaker’s Lobby,” Gohmert said. “The fact is, I went through the metal detector properly.”
Gohmert was fined one day after the House voted to impose the fine for those who refuse to comply with the metal detectors.
House and Senate lawmakers are permitted to enter the U.S. Capitol without security screenings. The House chamber metal detectors were erected after freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, pledged to carry her firearm in the Capitol, and it followed the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a throng of violent protesters backing former President Donald Trump.
Gohmert, in his appeal to the Ethics panel, noted Democratic lawmakers who walked past U.S. Capitol Police after setting off the metal detectors.
Gohmert said Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, of New York, “set off the metal detector and kept walking without taking any metal out” of her purse.
The Capitol Police, Gohmert said, “remained silent.”
Gohmert noted GOP lawmakers spotted Speaker Nancy Pelosi “avoiding the metal detectors” by entering the chamber through the Speaker’s Lobby.
The Ethics Committee is the only House panel evenly divided with five Republicans and five Democrats.
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A majority is needed for a motion to pass. The Ethics statement did not disclose the vote, which is taken in secret.
