Democratic lawmaker takes the bait on Marjorie Taylor Greene 'troll' amendment

In total, Greene submitted more than 20 amendments to the Ukraine aid bill and four to the Israel aid bill. Her first proposal on the Israel package would provide funding for the development of space laser technology “on the southwest border” – apparently a reference to her widely panned comments, made before she was a lawmaker, regarding the cause of a massive 2018 wildfire in California. Another amendment calls for an iron dome to be built on the Southern border.

“You can look at it as just nonsense bickering, but count me as someone who sees the MTG troll amendments as actually damaging to the House and emblematic of an unserious politics that is rapidly spreading, and the Moskowitz troll amendment response not helpful,” Glassman wrote.

Kevin Kosar, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies Congress, used the same word. “Rep. MTG seems to think the job of a legislator is to be a troll. When will Georgia’s 14th district voters decide enough is enough?” Kosar posted on social media.

Josh Huder, also a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute, said he couldn’t think of “an instance where two members intentionally go to the trouble of drafting legislative language targeting one another for purely performative reasons… But here we are.”

Moskowitz, meanwhile, has often played an antagonistic role on the contentious House Oversight and Accountability Committee. In March, he wore a Putin mask to a hearing on Hunter Biden, mocking his Republican colleagues for their alleged fealty to the Russian leader.

Viagra amendment as historic example

Anthony J. Madonna, a political science associate professor at the University of Georgia who researches American political institutions and congressional politics, said there has been “a pretty stark increase in amendments being offered for purely electoral purposes over the past couple decades.”

“But it’s also true that the practice of offering a floor amendment for electoral or comedic purposes has gone on for much of congressional history,” Madonna said.

In one notable example, Madonna said former Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn introduced an amendment to a reconciliation bill that amended and made corrections to the Affordable Care Act that would’ve barred insurance coverage of erectile dysfunction drug Viagra for child molesters and rapists.

Coburn’s Democratic colleague Max Baucus of Montana called it “not a serious amendment” that made “a mockery of this Senate,” according to Madonna. The amendment ultimately was defeated.

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