BURSTRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) got into a heated exchange with her GOP colleagues over Medicaid during the House Energy and Commerce panel markup on Wednesday morning.
The House committee is considering reforms to Medicaid requirements through a package that would allow patients who are pregnant or experiencing postpartum care to forgo work requirements while still receiving program services.
However, the legislation does not clearly state if mothers who have a miscarriage would also be exempt from employment requirements.
The New York lawmaker attempted to ask a question about whether miscarriages qualify for Medicaid coverage under Republicans' proposed work requirements before she was interrupted by GOP colleagues, who accused her of engaging with the hearing's camera instead of fellow representatives.
“I just want to make the point that we'd like for you to address the Republicans and let's have a dialogue this way and not to a camera. Mr. Chairman, I yield back,” Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) said before the exchange.
Ocasio-Cortez tried to finish her question and was loudly reprimanded by panel chair Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.). "The gentleman yields, the gentleman yields back."
"But I'm asking the ... what about a miscarriage?" Ocasio-Cortez continued.
"The gentleman yields back," Carter insisted. "The lady is out of order. The gentleman yields back."
Shortly afterward, Ocasio-Cortez spoke again and defended her gaze, which she said was directed toward the American public.
“There are 13.7 million Americans on the other side of that screen there. Hello, hello. I’m talking to you because I work for you. They deserve to see what is happening here because there are plenty of districts, including Republican ones, where 25 percent of your constituents are on Medicaid, 40 percent of your constituents are on Medicaid,” Ocasio-Cortez said, smiling at the camera briefly.
"Will the gentlelady yield?" she was asked.
“I will not yield because it was a terribly disrespectful comment, and I will not yield to disrespectful men,” she added.
However, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) argued that representatives could not control an individual’s eye movement.
“When the gentlelady from New York looks at the screen — if she wants to check her hair, she wants to say anything she wants to to that screen — she has the right to do so,” Clarke said.
“There’s not a member on this panel that can tell another member where to look, who to look at and where they want to look.”
Tensions between Democrats and Republicans have run high in recent weeks over proposed legislation, such as Medicaid cuts.