Impeaching Biden and banning kids from sports: 23 radical bills from House GOP

Since the new Congress was sworn in on Jan. 3, House Republican lawmakers have filed dozens of extreme bills, including those that would block efforts to rein in the COVID-19 pandemic and attack transgender students.

The bills have a slim chance of ever becoming law, as the GOP is currently in the minority in both the House and Senate, and Democratic leaders are unlikely to put the legislation up for a vote. What’s more, President Joe Biden would almost certainly not sign them if any of these bills did make it to his desk.

Yet the legislation sheds light on Republican priorities, which include seeking revenge against Biden, making it harder to vote, and limiting access to reproductive health care.

Here is the list of extremist bills Republicans have filed since the new Congress began:

1 article of impeachment

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced an article of impeachment against President Joe Biden, baselessly accusing him of “abuse of power by enabling bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors,” on his first full day in office. None of these alleged crimes could have possibly occurred during his presidency.

2 bills seeking to hamstring the COVID-19 response

One of Biden’s top priorities since taking office is getting the pandemic that the Trump administration failed to contain under control. Yet Republicans filed legislation to undo the steps Biden took shortly after taking office.

For example, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) introduced a bill on Jan. 21 to defund the World Health Organization, which Biden rejoined right after he was sworn in one day earlier.

And Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) introduced a bill on Jan. 20 that would repeal the mask mandate on federal property Biden created on his Inauguration Day.

1 bill attacking transgender kids

Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced a discriminatory bill on Jan. 14 that seeks to ban transgender students from women’s sports. The bill states that a student’s gender “shall be determined on the basis of sex assigned at birth by a physician.”

7 bills to curtail reproductive rights

Multiple House Republican lawmakers have introduced a spate of bills seeking to curtail abortion rights.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) introduced a trio of bills. One would ban women from deducting abortion costs as a medical expense. Another would “require abortion providers to have admitting privileges to a local hospital” — a requirement that the Supreme Court ruled against in June of 2020. And the third voices support for “crisis pregnancy centers” that seek to dissuade women who want an abortion from receiving one.

A bill from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) seems to specifically target Planned Parenthood, as it seeks to block entities that perform abortions from receiving family planning grants.

Another bill from Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) goes a step further, seeking to allow states to block entities that perform abortions, like Planned Parenthood, from receiving funding altogether.

Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) introduced a bill for “memorializing the unborn” that would require the flag to be flown at half staff on a certain day each year.

And Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) introduced a bill that could force abortion clinics to pay burial costs for fetal remains, which would force health care providers to incur more costs.

3 bills targeting the Paris climate agreement

Republicans introduced three bills targeting the Paris climate agreement, the historic pact Trump pulled the United States from and which Biden rejoined shortly after taking office.

One of the three bills seeks to prohibit Biden from using funds to rejoin the Paris climate agreement. Another one of the three proposed bills says the Paris climate agreement itself — which was signed by all but two countries in the entire world — should be renegotiated. And a third wants the Senate to ratify the agreement, which would allow Senate Republicans to block the United States from entering the pact.

3 bills to block climate action

Attacks on the Paris climate agreement weren’t the only anti-climate change legislation House Republicans introduced.

GOP lawmakers filed a bill seeking to block the Biden administration from issuing moratoriums on oil and gas drilling. They also introduced two more that seek to repeal energy conservation and renewable fuel standards.

2 bills to suppress the vote

Following the countless lies by their members about voter fraud, House Republicans introduced two bills that would make it harder to participate in elections. Biggs introduced a bill seeking to repeal the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires that states allow Americans to register to vote at the DMV.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) introduced another bill to make it harder to register to vote, by requiring citizens to provide their Social Security number when registering. The bill is titled the “Restoring Faith in Our Elections Act,” though there is no evidence of widespread voting by non-citizens.

1 bill infringing on states’ rights to implement gun control

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) proposed a “Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act” to force states to allow those permitted to carry a concealed firearm in their home states to do so when traveling into most other states — circumventing states’ rights to set their own requirements.

1 bill to curtail Biden’s presidential powers

Biggs filed another bill that would strip Biden of presidential powers. The bill says that emergency declarations can only last 30 days without approval from Congress. Trump used emergency powers to siphon billions in taxpayer money from military families to pay for his Southern border wall, but most Republicans did not oppose those emergency powers then. In a March 2019 press release, Biggs bragged of voting to “uphold President Trump’s lawful right to declare the national emergency.”

1 bill to whitewash American history

Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) hopes to bring back Donald Trump’s scheme to whitewash American history and stop kids from learning about racism. One of Biden’s first actions as president was eliminating the 1776 Commission. Budd’s bill would require it, by law, to continue.

1 bill to prevent Washington, D.C., statehood

23. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), filed a bill aimed at undermining efforts to grant statehood to the more than 700,000 citizens of the District of Columbia. Rather than give the currently taxed-without-representation people the House and Senate representation they overwhelmingly want, Johnson’s bill would make the parts of the city outside of the National Mall part of Maryland. This would dilute Marylander’s influence in the Senate and reduce the Electoral College influence of D.C. residents.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.