Matt Gaetz’s Proposed Bill Flops With Zero Co-Sponsors Across Entire House

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Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) recently introduced a bill that if enacted would provide for the reinstatement of federal employees pushed out of their jobs for refusing to comply with mandates to receive vaccines against COVID-19 — and as of Tuesday, it didn’t appear the legislation had a single co-sponsor.

None were listed in the legislative data available on Congress.gov, and a press release from Gaetz himself about the initiative didn’t mention anybody, none of which obviously seems like a great sign for how well the bill will actually do if the proposal is ever voted on by the full House. It’s routine for proposed actions in either the House or Senate to have co-sponsors right from the start. Of course, even if the proposal from Gaetz eventually passed the House, there’s basically no chance it would become law this Congress, considering Democrats still control the Senate. Even if it somehow made it out of the Senate, President Joe Biden would no doubt veto it.

Gaetz offered conventionally melodramatic language in his discussion of the bill. “Forcing public servants to choose between destroying their livelihood or complying with immoral demands from the federal government is sickening,” he whined. “The Biden administration should have never forced federal employees to resign due to the vaccine mandate. Reinstating and compensating these individuals is the first step toward reconciliation. Vaccine mandates have no place in a free country.”

A naive definition of freedom that seems to equate to being able to do basically whatever seems to underpin so much of where these sorts of people occupy themselves. It’s worth remembering the protesters against restrictions tied to COVID-19 who went to Washington, D.C., with a whole lot of gusto early last year — and whose presence it’s unclear ever led to a single policy change, a flop after dramatic proclamations… and difficulties with actually materializing the kind of show of force they sought.

Available data indicated Gaetz’s proposal was referred to the House committees on both oversight and Ways and Means. The letdown of the lack of support for Gaetz’s initiative is mirrored in how other ideas of his have gone. Another bill listed online would “amend title XIX of the Social Security Act to implement a minimum work requirement for able-bodied adults enrolled in State Medicaid programs” — and it has zero co-sponsors, at least as of Tuesday. And Gaetz’s resolution in opposition to further U.S. aid for Ukraine to help with that country’s defense against Russia, a resolution falsely tying U.S. assistance to civilian deaths? Just 10 co-sponsors, in addition to Gaetz himself. It’s not the U.S. aid keeping that war going; it’s the Russian troops. If anything, the aid has helped keep civilian casualties lower since it’s meant Russian forces couldn’t operate as unimpeded as possible otherwise.