House leadership proposes plan to penalize live-streaming lawmakers

Seeking to prevent another live-streaming "viral video moment" from taking place on the floor of the US House of Representatives, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has introduced a rules package that would fine and punish lawmakers for recording photos and video from the floor. Lawmakers would be fined $500 for the first offense and $2,500 for each subsequent violation. The fines would be deducted from members’ paychecks.

The move comes in response to Democratic lawmakers, who in June live-streamed a sit-in on the House floor over gun control legislation. Democrats organized the sit-in to protest Republican lawmakers’ decision not to bring to the floor a gun-control bill, which if passed would have broadened background checks and prevented people on no-fly lists from buying guns.