Rep. Kay Granger, top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, announced Monday that she tested positive for COVID-19.
Ms. Granger, Texas Republican, was tested Sunday when members arrived back on Capitol Hill, following the guidance set by the Capitol Physician.
“She was later notified she tested positive and immediately quarantined,” her office said in a statement. “Having received the vaccine in December, she is asymptomatic and feeling great!”
The news comes after lawmakers, including Ms. Granger, spent their first day back voting in person, as the House’s special proxy voting rule expired at the end of the last term.
For the most part throughout the day, members were required to spread out, wear masks and only enter the House chamber to vote in groups. The Capitol Physician allowed a few members who were still under quarantine but tested negative to vote from a plexiglass enclosure above the floor.
Those rules, however, went out the window later in the evening as members filed into the chamber, without much social distancing, for a mass swearing-in and a vote on a motion related to the Electoral College challenge.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, scolded members on Monday.
“As we go forward, please note with respect the guidance set forth by the Office of the Attending Physician and the Sergeant at Arms. When staff urge you to leave the Floor, it is not a suggestion. It is a direction, in the interest of keeping the Congress healthy and intact,” she wrote in a statement.
More than 50 members of Congress have tested positive or been exposed to COVID-19 and needed to self-quarantine since the outbreak began.
Officials have expanded testing on Capitol Hill and in December began to vaccinate members.
