Rep. Matt Gaetz wears gas mask on House floor during vote on coronavirus response package

Matt Gaetz
Matt Gaetz

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz wore a gas mask Wednesday while he decided on a bill that would commit billions of dollars to battling coronavirus as concerns ascend over the spread of the malady.

“Reviewing the coronavirus supplemental appropriation and preparing to go vote,” Gaetz tweeted with a picture of himself wearing a gas mask while looking at a piece of paper before the vote.

Gaetz later wore the mask onto the House floor, according to a photo tweeted by Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat.

The remarks from Gaetz, a longstanding protector of President Donald Trump, follow a declaration prior to Wednesday of the 11th US death from the illness as the worldwide cost of coronavirus deaths continues to move into the thousands. Wellbeing authorities have encouraged Americans to quit purchasing masks out of concern of a shortage for medicinal services laborers, and Vice President Mike Pence, whose office is in charge of coronavirus-related informing, repeated the point during a press preparation prior Wednesday, saying that “there is no requirement for Americans to purchase covers” to ensure themselves.

Gaetz eventually cast a ballot on the side of the bill, which passed 415 to 2, with 13 individuals not casting a ballot. It gives $7.8 billion in allotments to address the episode of coronavirus just as an extra $500 million to support a telehealth program with an end goal to help extend access to wellbeing administrations for seniors.

Yet, Gaetz said later that while he sponsored the bill “since we should have assets currently to forestall additionally spread,” he “didn’t like it” because of the absence of spending slices to counterbalance the spend.

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