North Cook News

Republicans are jabbing at U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Illinois) after he released the "Schneider Standard," which prevents Republicans who believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump from co-sponsoring his bills. 

In an April 15 installment of the Jonathon M. Tisch College of Civic Life Distinguished Speaker Series, U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-South Dakota) said that while Schneider is "one of the best human beings in Congress," he disagrees with the Schneider Standard. 

"I don't think we can afford to be litmus test people," Johnson said, noting that he has been able to productively disagree with left-of-center lawmakers on incredibly emotional, defining issues. "I think you do see of the Problem Solvers [Caucus], regardless of where anybody is on those issues they have come together, there has been healing, and we are very well positioned to succeed in a narrowly divided House and Senate."

In an interview with the New York Times earlier this year about the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, Schneider said that the number of Republicans who still don't think the 2020 election "is not an insignificant number."

According to Politico, Schneider asked Republican Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) to wipe his name off the bipartisan Parental Bereavement Act, which would add death of a child as a qualifying life event for FMLA leave. 

Gosar is rumored to be a white supremacist. 

“It’s hard to envision going into an administration with a partner who doesn’t acknowledge the legitimacy of that administration or is showing a commitment to the truth,” Schneider said in an NBC interview.

A New York Times opinion piece noted that, should the Schneider Standard be widely accepted, Democrats who have questioned past elections that had Republican outcomes would be susceptible to the standard too.