Marjorie Taylor Greene’s refusal to wear a mask cost her almost one-third of her salary

Amid conspiracy theories surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine and QAnon, hackling colleagues, and anti-mask rhetoric, controversial Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) appears to have lost almost one-third of her salary for the fines she racked up over the months.

Greene and her fellow Republicans had previously failed to overturn the fines they’ve received, and now that she’s been reprimanded 20 times for breaking the rules, she’s looking at a tab of $48,000 in fines. Most members of Congress receive a salary of $174,000.

According to a letter first shared with The Hill, William Walker, the House Sergeant-at-Arms sent a letter to Greene’s office October 28.

It detailed how the freshman Republican lawmaker’s first recorded transgression occurred in May, prompting an initial warning, followed by her first punishment on May 19 and a slew of others.

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She received a $500 fine in May for the first incident, with $2,500 penalties enacted for further incidents.

The legislation was implemented as a precaution in the pandemic; infections have spread in Congress, as they have throughout the country and world (although some conservative politicians have indicated they will not get vaccinated, claiming to have recovered from the virus earlier).

Even though Greene has worn masks in the past, with phrases such as “Trump won” and “Censored,” she’s been photographed without one on numerous occasions.

In a statement sent to PEOPLE by her office, Greene said that “Americans” had enough and are “standing up against these outrageous and unconstitutional policies.”

“I will continue my stand on the House floor against authoritarian Democrat mandates because I don’t want the American people to stand alone.”

Greene has increasingly opposed the House requirement that all members put on a mask in Congress.

In an Associated Press report in June, she apologised for offending people with her statements comparing the obligatory wearing of safety masks to Jewish people being forced by the Nazis to wear a gold star in the Holocaust.

“I’m truly sorry for offending people with remarks about the Holocaust,” she told reporters outside the Capitol and noting that she went to Washington’s U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum earlier that day. “There’s no comparison and there never ever will be.”

Before entering Congress in January, she made headlines due to previous support of the QAnon conspiracy theory (her representatives currently say she doesn’t believe in it) and her staunch support for former President Donald Trump.

Now, Greene has found “common ground” with the Black nationalist organisation the Nation of Islam, claiming the leader Louis Farrakhan and his conspiracy theory-promoting newspaper and its followers share her sentiments to the opposition Covid-19 vaccines, public health officials and the press.