House Republicans revive obscure rule... slash the pay of individual federal workers to $1

[demmiblue]

Source: Washington Post

House Republicans this week reinstated an arcane procedural rule that enables lawmakers to reach deep into the budget and slash the pay of an individual federal worker - down to a $1 - a move that threatens to upend the 130-year-old civil service.

The Holman rule, named after a Indiana congressman who devised it in 1876, empowers any member of Congress to offer an amendment to an appropriations bill that targets a specific government employee or program.

A majority of the House and the Senate would still have to approve any such amendment but opponents and supporters agree it puts agencies and the public on notice that their work is now vulnerable to the whims of elected officials.

Democrats and federal employee unions say the provision, which one called “the Armageddon rule,” could prove disastrous to the federal workforce, when combined with president-elect Donald Trump’s criticism of the Washington bureaucracy, his call for a freeze on government hiring and his nomination of secretaries who seem to be at odds with the mission of the agencies they will lead.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/house-republicans-revive-obscure-rule-that-could-allow-them-to-slash-the-pay-of-individual-federal-workers-to-1/2017/01/04/4e80c990-d2b2-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html?utm_term=.791870264a05

[gordianot]

1. Welcome to the Republican dystopian paradise.

Ruled by the permanent upperclass but they will provide cake.

[Cha]

2. Terrorists. I feel bad for Fed employees.. the cons will raise their

pay and gut everyone else's.

No repubs work for the Fed gov?

[atreides1]

3. Many Repubs work for the Federal Government!

As do many Tea Partiers, but I get the feeling that many of them actually believe that they won't be affected by any new laws!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

16. But not the "right" Republicans

If you don't pledge total allegiance to Herr Trump, you're out!

[mythology]

24. Unless they work in one of those departments they will be safe

Call it a hunch but I'm guessing there aren't many tea party people in the EPA.

[n2doc]

4. I'm sure this will never be misused to intimidate or retaliate

[demmiblue]

7. Oh, of course not!

This paragraph stood out:

In light of recent inquiries by the Trump transition team for a list of Energy Department scientists who have worked on climate change, advocates for federal workers say they worry that bureaucrats could be targeted for political reasons.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

23. I'd say that their fears are not unfounded.

Unfortunately.

[GeorgeGist]

5. We have enemy combatants in our Congress.

send them to Gitmo, President Obama.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Sounds like a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

[Zoonart]

8. Drown the Government in the bathtub

Bye-Bye, to the Post Office, VA, Social Security, Medicare, on and on...

"Can I do all this (lie, cheat, steal?) and not get a crown? Tut, were it further off, I'd pluck it down." Shakespeare- Richard the III

[2naSalit]

18. ...National Park Service,

BLM, USDA Forest Service, etc..

[Zoonart]

20. Yes

Exactly!

[Snarkoleptic]

9. Gobsmacked...I thought it was an Onion article.We are all Trump University students now.

They have no clue how anti-stimulative this will be to our economy.

[Turbineguy]

10. Republicans are about power.

The King of a shitheap is still the King.

[ehrnst]

11. Now we know why they wanted a hit list of individual employees in the EPA, NOAA, FDA.

[Fla Dem]

12. How about we slash the Congress' pay to $1. nt

[2naSalit]

19. My first thought...

as a seasonal federal employee.

[ileus]

13. A buck an hour would save a lot of money.

[demmiblue]

38. .

[sarcasmo]

14. Kansas was the trial run. The Robber Barons are back.

[hedda_foil]

15. Shrinking the government down to where they can drown it in a bathtub.

This is going to get bad beyond all our wildest dreams at mach speed.

[hadEnuf]

22. Think France, 1940.

[hedda_foil]

26. You think the Russians are going to occupy us and administer a Vichy government?

[hadEnuf]

30. They will have the Vichy government on 1/20.

And the right is currently planning their lightning warfare on America, as your first post suggests.

[hedda_foil]

31. So we've been experiencing something of a cyber blitzkrieg while the puppeteers consolidate ...

... their control?

[hadEnuf]

33. Hmmm

I'll clarify.

You said:

This is going to get bad beyond all our wildest dreams at mach speed.

I said "think France 1940" as in the Nazi blitzkrieg rampage through France in WW2.

Very fast and very devastating.

I believe that's how the GOP will proceed.

[hedda_foil]

34. I think we're saying the same thing slightly differently.

[hadEnuf]

40. Yes.

[malaise]

36. Nailed it

The ReTHUG coup is complete

[barbtries]

17. things are going to shit

in a hurry. can the people slash these assholes' pay to $1?

[Historic NY]

21. Maybe its time to declare war on Congress!!!

[world wide wally]

25. Their goal is to eliminate the middle class and establish an aristocracy and a working class

That will work for a pittance as Illustrated by Charles Dickens. A middle class is too hard to control because they will just leave and find a better job when things get bad for them. A poverty saddled working class will work for anything they are offered, like $1 a day.
Are you sure this is what you want, Republicans?
Aren't you glad you keep voting for them, assholes?
Is America getting greater again already?

[50 Shades Of Blue]

27. As a retired Fed with friends still in the Fed workforce this sends chills down my spine

I knew it was only a matter of time before they went after Federal employees and Federal retirees but this is spiteful beyond belief.

EVIL FUCKERS!

[teezy]

28. Does this party ever want to be elected again?

Or are they coming to the realization that their appeal is dwindling in an ever more progressive world, so they're going to kill every progressive stride that's been made while they can? They can't keep competing with countries that are repeatedly ranked high in things like the happiness of its citizens, quality of education, prosperity, technology, civil rights... like seriously, what the fuck are they thinking? Oh, to swoop in and make devastating changes that set the country back 5 decades so they can enjoy 4 years of religious preference and tax breaks? So undo all the progress and polarize half the country, pretty much ensuring that you don't get re-elected. Make a choice, Republican'ts. America can't be great and destitute at the same time.

How are they going to attract votes in 2020? They'll definitely lose more than they'll gain. I mean, the stupidity is unreal. What is so complicated about the idea that when everyone prospers, the country is better?

It's starting to look like the Hunger Games. I can't even put into words how angry I am about this. About the lack of insight they have, about the hypocrisy... and the religion. Don't even get me going on the god warriors who are becoming a shitstain on American democracy. I'm not talking about the peaceful ones who can love God and their neighbour at the same time... but the hypocrites who use their faith as a weapon and an excuse... the kinds who are so charitable in Christ's image that they want to pay their federal workers $1 an hour. Kind of hard to move forward when lawmakers want to let Christian dogma run the show.

I watched Obama's farewell to the military last night. I cried and cried... because he is so poised and dignified, and he has such humanity and grace. And corruption allowed his polar opposite to succeed him. It's a loss for everyone - even Republicans. I am so happy to see the GOP splitting on issues right now... but definitely disappointed that so few of them can be bipartisan and objective when it comes to serious threats. I hope this is the death of that party. My anger and frustration over this is boiling over.

But I feel better getting that off my chest. Because nobody on Facebook even cares anymore.

[hedda_foil]

32. Do you actually think we will have an election that means anything in four years?

You're a lot more optimistic than I am.

[teezy]

35. I don't even know.

I'm willing it more than anything. I'm being hopeful that this circus won't be any longer than 4 years.

[yodermon]

29. Isn't this a bill of attainder? Should be unconstitutional. n/t

[JustinL]

41. in 1946, the Supreme Court found a similar provision to be unconstitutional

In United States v Lovett, 328 U.S. 303, the Court ruled 6-2 that the following section of an appropriations act was a bill of attainder:

No part of any appropriation, allocation, or fund (1) which is made available under or pursuant to this Act, or (2) which is now, or which is hereafter made, available under or pursuant to any other Act, to any department, agency, or instrumentality of the United States, shall be used, after November 15, 1943, to pay any part of the salary, or other compensation for the personal services, of Goodwin B. Watson, William E. Dodd, Junior, and Robert Morss Lovett, unless prior to such date such person has been appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate: Provided, That this section shall not operate to deprive any such person of payment for leaves of absence or salary, or of any refund or reimbursement, which have accrued prior to November 15, 1943: Provided further, That this section shall not operate to deprive any such person of payment for services performed as a member of a jury or as a member of the armed forces of the United States nor any benefit, pension, or emolument resulting therefrom.

The Court found that the provision served to punish the three named individuals for so-called "subversive activities," and enunciated the principle that "legislative acts, no matter what their form, that apply either to named individuals or to easily ascertainable members of a group in such a way as to inflict punishment on them without a judicial trial are bills of attainder prohibited by the Constitution."

[BigDemVoter]

37. Maybe they need to do that for EVERYBODY at the VA.

I worked at the VA a few years ago, and EVERY single employee I knew there was a repig. This would wake them up.

[lindysalsagal]

39. Unbelievable. n/t.