Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) presided over a contentious Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency hearing on Wednesday.
At one point, Greene, the subcommittee chairwoman, banged her gavel 46 times in about 30 seconds in an effort to silence ranking member Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), arguing her allotted time to speak was over.
“The gentlelady’s time is expired,” Greene said during the hearing titled “Unfair Play: Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
“Madame Chair, you spoke for over a minute more than your allocated time,” Stansbury said in response.
“You took a minute of my time, wasting my time on a nonpoint of order,” Greene replied.
“The clock was not running during the point of order. Time was not wasted,” Stansbury countered, continuing to speak as Greene sought to give the floor to Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI). It was at this point that Greene began banging the gavel, startling a man behind her and continuing to slam it as Democrats objected.
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) quickly jumped in, requesting that the timekeeper “log the time between both the Democrats and Republicans” in an effort to ensure that both parties’ members received equal time.
“That’s pretty basic,” Lynch said.
“We will consider that,” Greene said. “Thank you.”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Lynch responded. “That’s not a suggestion. Those are the rules!”
“No, no, no, you took a minute of my time,” Greene countered as she banged down her gavel. “We’re keeping equal time.”
USA FENCING OFFERS TO BAN TRANSGENDER COMPETITORS
The hearing focused on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, a situation President Donald Trump and his administration have made a focus of combating. The DOGE subcommittee specifically cited the chairman of USA Fencing, Damien Lehfeldt, writing a blog post stating that if his daughter competes against a transgender athlete and loses, he hopes that she doesn’t care about the end result and instead “enjoys the match.”
“You came here today to defeat women in their own sport,” Greene said to Lehfeldt. “You are a man who would tell his daughter to lose to a biological man and enjoy it!”
Democrats on the subcommittee, instead, voiced their support for transgender athletes.