(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Divided on the issue of impeachment, House Republicans are instead aiming to invoke a little-used rule to eliminate the salaries of top Biden administration officials who have been engaging in malfeasance.
As soon as the funding bills for 2024 are released, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., reportedly plans on filing amendments to cut the salaries of numerous officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Chris Wray, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Boebert’s amendments would be filed pursuant to the Holman Rule, which allows House members to propose amendments to spending bills that closely manage federal agencies. The Holman Rule was restored this year by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., after being dormant under the previous Democrat-controlled House.
“There’s bureaucrats that will be targeted with the Holman rule, and we need to make sure that we’re making significant cuts,” Boebert told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.
Boebert’s plan may be an uphill battle, but it has more support than impeachment. Lawmakers such as Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., for example, oppose impeachment but support using the Holman Rule—at least for certain officials.
“You know, people make all kinds of accusations and say, ‘We should impeach!’ But I haven’t seen documents suggesting that [Garland] has in some way altered the plea offered to Hunter Biden,” Buck told Politico this week.
“If we’ve got a problem, a policy difference — not high crimes and misdemeanors — with Secretary Mayorkas, the proper procedure is to cut his salary in the appropriations process,” added Buck, who said that at this point, he only supports using the Holman Rule against Mayorkas.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has proposed a raft of proposals that federal agencies would have to follow to ensure their funding.
Among other things, Jordan has proposed to suspend all Justice Department “politically sensitive investigations” until the DOJ establishes a policy requiring “non-partisan career staff” to oversee such investigations. Jordan also seeks to move FBI headquarters outside of Washington DC.
Jordan wrote a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, urging her to include those proposals and others in her committee’s appropriations bill.
Jordan told Granger that his work as chair of the House Judiciary Committee “has generated a number of potential reforms that the House of Representatives can advance through its ‘power of the purse.’”
“We appreciate your willingness to work with us to identify ways to utilize the appropriations process to constrain out-of-control federal agencies, hold the Biden Administration accountable, and most importantly protect the fundamental civil liberties of the American people,” he said.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
