Rep. Lloyd Smucker, a Pennsylvania Republican, received a fine for violating the House metal detector screening protocols.
Smucker, a third-term lawmaker, received a letter from the House Sergeant-at-Arms William Walker after he failed to complete a security screening on May 19, issuing a $5,000 fine under H.R. 73.
HOUSE ETHICS COMMITTEE DROPS METAL DETECTOR FINES FOR JIM CLYBURN AND HAL ROGERS
According to Capitol Police, Smucker walked onto the House floor’s East Lobby entrance without being screened.
“Representative Smucker entered into the lobby and continued on to the House floor for a vote. The congressman was informed before entering the floor that he did not complete screening and continued on to the floor regardless,” one witness in the police report stated. “He voted. Left the floor and was reminded that the security screening had to be completed prior to entering onto the House floor. He then completed the screening at the moment and then went back on to the floor.”
Smucker is the sixth lawmaker hit with a metal detector fine since Democratic members passed a rule, at the insistence of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to fine lawmakers who evaded metal detectors following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Pelosi ordered a security check at each entrance of the chamber.
Under the rule, House members are fined $5,000 for the first violation and $10,000 for the second.
Along with Smucker, lawmakers snagged by the metal detector rule include GOP Reps. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Hal Rogers of Kentucky, and Rep. Jim Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina and the House majority whip.
Rogers and Clyburn successfully appealed their fines to the Ethics Committee, while Clyde’s and Gohmert’s appeals were rejected by the panel composed of five Republicans and five Democrats.
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Clyde, however, has prepared a lawsuit to fight the $15,000 metal detector fines he must contend with.
