In contesting his fines, Mr. Clyde has accused the House and the sergeant-at-arms, who enforces the penalties, of a “deeply troubling” practice of “selective enforcement.”
Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has also been fined, suggested that Mr. Clyde had found a way around paying the penalties. Mr. Massie told CNN that Mr. Clyde had changed his payroll withholdings so that he was paid only $1 a month.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Clyde did not respond to a request for comment.
Other Republicans who have been fined at least once for not wearing a mask on the House floor include Bob Good of Virginia, Brian Mast of Florida, Mary Miller of Illinois, Beth Van Duyne of Texas, Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa.
Mr. Massie, Ms. Greene and Mr. Norman have filed a federal lawsuit in Washington against Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seeking a judge’s order to strike down the fines as unconstitutional. The suit accuses Ms. Pelosi of using the mandate “as a cudgel” to dock the pay of her “political opponents.”
It argues that the House may fine members for disorderly behavior, but that the Republicans do not believe refusing to wear a mask falls into that category.
“Merely entering the House chamber without a mask,” the suit says, “did not constitute ‘disorderly behavior’ because it did not disrupt the House’s operations or good order, nor is it otherwise unlawful conduct.”
Ms. Pelosi has said the mask rule helps protect lawmakers and staff members from a “terrible epidemic that has caused suffering and death on a scale not seen in this country since the 1918 influenza pandemic.”