General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I want more Tom Massies in the GOP. [View all]Celerity
(55,108 posts)During the 117th Congress, Massie voted with President Joe Biden's stated position 1.8% of the time according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis, tying with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) to be the least likely member of Congress to vote with Biden on any given issue. Massie only voted with Biden's stated position on two bills: H.R.256 (To repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002), and the first introduction of H.R.3967 (the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022).[123] No piece of legislation proposed by Massie has been passed by Congress.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Massie
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In 2015, Massie was the sole member of the House to vote "present" on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear agreement, citing Constitutional concerns that the treaties are not ratified by the House of Representatives and that he had no authority to vote for or against the nuclear deal. In November 2016, he voted against an extension of U.S. sanctions against Iran, the only member of the House to do so.
In February 2017, Massie introduced a one-page bill that would abolish the United States Department of Education, and cosponsored a bill that would abolish the Environmental Protection Agency.
In April 2017, he expressed skepticism over the role of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in the 2017 Khan Shaykhun chemical attack. In May 2017, he was the sole House member to vote against sanctions on North Korea.
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On April 10, 2019, during former United States secretary of state John Kerry's testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Massie called Kerry's political science degree from Yale University a "pseudoscience degree" and called Kerry's position on climate change "pseudoscience". Kerry responded, "Are you serious? I mean, this is really a serious happening here?"
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In July 2021, Massie voted against the bipartisan ALLIES Act, which would increase by 8,000 the number of special immigrant visas for Afghan allies of the U.S. military during its invasion of Afghanistan, while also reducing some application requirements that caused long application backlogs; the bill passed the House, 40716.
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COVID-19 pandemic response
On March 27, 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Massie forced the return to Washington of members of the House who were "sheltering in place" in their districts by threatening a quorum call that would have required an in-person vote on the $2.2 trillion aid package that had passed the Senate by a 960 vote. Before Massie arrived on the House floor, just two representatives were present to pass the bill by voice vote. On the House floor, Massie said he was trying to "make sure our republic doesn't die by unanimous consent in an empty chamber." Massie received criticism for endangering members of Congress by requiring them to gather amid a pandemic.
After Massie's unsuccessful push, Trump said Massie should be removed from the Republican Party, calling him a "third rate [g]randstander"; John Kerry quipped that Massie "tested positive for being an asshole"; Representative Sean Patrick Maloney tweeted, "@RepThomasMassie is indeed a dumbass"; Representative Dean Phillips called his actions a "principled but terribly misguided stunt." In a phone interview with Betsy Woodruff Swan of Politico, Massie responded in jest to Trump's calls for his removal, stating "I take great offense to that. I'm at least second-rate." Some Republicans defended Massie: Paul Gosar called him a "good man and a solid conservative" and Chip Roy said Massie was "defending the Constitution today by requiring a quorum."
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He also questioned why people such as grocery store employees or truck drivers should be expected to work during the pandemic, but not members of Congress, who "make $174,000 a year" and have "the best health care in the world."
In April 2020, Massie was one of five House members to vote against the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which added $320 billion of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program. Trump signed the bill into law the next day. In July 2020, Massie argued against face mask mandates and compulsory vaccinations. He faced allegations of antisemitism after comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust, and later deleted the tweet doing so. In February 2025, Massie called for the US Food and Drug Administration to revoke its approvals of COVID-19 vaccines.
On June 27, 2021, Massie said he and representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ralph Norman were suing Speaker Nancy Pelosi after they were fined for refusing to wear masks on the House floor.
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Russia and Ukraine
In 2019, Massie was the only member of Congress to oppose an act that refused to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea.
He was also one of three members to oppose a March 2022 resolution supporting Ukraine's sovereignty after it was invaded by Russia. He later amplified Russian claims that Ukraine was developing biological weapons. Referring to Victoria Nuland's statement that Ukraine had biological research facilities that the U.S. feared might be seized by Russia, Massie tweeted, "I didn't take the concern over Ukrainian biological labs seriously ... until now." Massie opposed a resolution in 2022 to support Sweden and Finland joining NATO, saying he did not want to "subsidize socialist Europe's defense."
In March 2024 he voted against House Resolution 149 condemning "the wrongful and illegal kidnapping of children from Ukraine" by Russia, one of nine Republicans to do so.
Iran
Massie voted "present" on the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the only member of the House to do so and the only Republican to not vote against it. Massie was the only member of the House to vote against extending sanctions on Iran in 2016. He was also one of three House members to vote against a 2017 bill to impose new sanctions on Iran, Russia, and North Korea.
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Environment
Massie does not find the scientific evidence for climate change compelling. He has said, "I think the jury is still out on the contribution of our activities to the change in the earth's climate." In 2013, he joked that cold weather undercut the argument for climate change, tweeting, "Today's Science Committee Hearing on Global Warming canceled due to snow." During a 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing on the impact of climate change, Massie suggested that concerns over rising carbon dioxide levels were exaggerated.
Massie supports dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency.
He voted to block the Department of Defense from spending on climate adaptation.
He voted to repeal the Stream Protection Rule, which imposed stricter requirements on coal mining to prevent coal debris from getting into waterways.
In 2018, after French president Emmanuel Macron spoke to Congress and mentioned his desire that the United States rejoin the Paris Climate Accords to curb climate change, Massie said Macron was "a socialist militarist globalist science-alarmist. The dark future of the American Democratic Party."
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Gun rights
Massie has introduced and supported legislation that eliminates certain gun control measures. For example, during the 20192020 session, Massie introduced H.R. 2071, the "Second Amendment Protection Act," which would lift the federal prohibition on medical marijuana patients from owning or possessing firearms. In 2022, he introduced H.R. 7415, the "Safe Students Act," which would repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 (GFSZA), effectively repealing the federal ban on guns in school zones and allowing state and local governments and school boards to set their own firearms policies. Massie commenting:
"Gun-free zones are ineffective and make our schools less safe. Since 1950, 98 percent of mass public shootings have occurred in places where citizens are banned from having guns." He added, "Banks, churches, sports stadiums, and many of my colleagues in Congress are protected with firearms, yet children inside the classroom are too frequently left vulnerable."
Massie has also criticized President Joe Biden's plans to regulate privately made firearms by reclassifying gun kits as firearms under the Gun Control Act and requiring manufacturers to be licensed and inscribe serial numbers on gun kits. On March 26, 2025, the Supreme Court, in a 72 opinion authored by Justice Gorsuch, ruled in favor of the Biden administration's reclassification.
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Human rights
Massie was the sole member of Congress to vote against the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in November 2019[193] and the UIGHUR Act condemning the treatment of Chinese Uyghurs in December 2019. Massie clarified on Twitter that his reasoning was that it is not the role of the United States to intervene in other nations' internal affairs. Massie was also one of only three House members to vote against the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2020, and was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d'état that overwhelmingly passed in 2021.
On February 26, 2020, Massie voted against making lynching a federal hate crime. On February 28, 2022, he was one of three representatives to vote against the similar Emmett Till Antilynching Act.
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Healthcare
Massie supports repealing the Affordable Care Act. In 2017, he criticized Republicans' efforts to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, saying the efforts fell "far short of our promise to repeal Obamacare."
Massie opposes compulsory vaccination. In 2020, he stated on Twitter, "There is no authority in the Constitution that authorizes the government to stick a needle in you."
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Disaster relief
Massie is among a handful of members of Congress who consistently vote to block disaster relief. However, when Kentucky has been hit by natural disasters, Massie has supported disaster relief. Stating, "While it's true that I've consistently voted against bloated spending bills and unbalanced budgets, it's also true that once these bills pass, it's my constituents who must bear the burden of the taxes and debts incurred by these bills... Therefore, I advocate for our congressional district's fair share, if those bills ultimately pass."
In February 2023, Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene were the only two representatives to vote against a nonpartisan resolution mourning those killed in the 2023 TurkeySyria earthquakes, which also condemned Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for his alleged attempts to "cynically exploit the disaster to evade international pressure and accountability."
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Other
In October 2019, Massie criticized the jail sentence for Maria Butina, a Russian citizen who pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as a foreign agent in the United States. Butina had sought to infiltrate the National Rifle Association of America in order to influence a more favorable U.S. foreign policy towards Russia. Massie described her jail sentence as motivated by Russophobia. In August 2019, Massie said that former FBI director James Comey should be put in prison instead of Butina.
In September 2020, after Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional homicide for his role in the Kenosha unrest shooting, Massie defended him, saying Rittenhouse showed "incredible restraint and presence and situational awareness," with Massie arguing that Rittenhouse did not fire indiscriminately into a crowd and stopped shooting when people showed "retreat or nonaggression." Rittenhouse, who shot three people, two fatally, was later acquitted of all charges.
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Massie is a part of a small group of Republicans who voted against a House resolution reaffirming commitment to the orderly and peaceful transfer of power in the United States under democratic principles.
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In June 2021, Massie was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
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Massie endorsed Florida governor Ron DeSantis for president in the 2024 election, saying that "America needs a leader who is decisive, respects the Constitution, understands policy, puts family first, and leads by inspiring."
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Massie released a statement in 2013 in which he called Roe v. Wade "one of the greatest judicial travesties of our time," then went on to say he believes life begins at conception. Massie voted against the Women's Health Protection Act of 2022.
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