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

[Cattledog]

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 an 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.



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?postshare=9111483655972852&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.9c034ae3cec2

[riversedge]

1. Seems to me the Rupugs are just playing around -crude!! with workers. Shame on them!

...The Holman provision was approved Tuesday as part of a larger rules package but received little attention amid the chaos of Republicans’ failed effort to decimate the House ethics office on the first day of the new Congress.

[A day of chaos at the Capitol as House Republicans back down on ethics changes]

Republican leaders say the rule increases accountability in government and played down concerns — some within their own party — that it will usher in broad changes to the appropriations process.

[OregonBlue]

6. This is why they were asking for the names of climate scientists and State Department people who

worked on climate and women's issues, etc. They plan to get their names and fire those individuals. Actually, in this day and age, I don't think it will work. They would have to prove incompetence or illegal behavior.

[klook]

2. So this is what they were pulling while everybody was focused on the ethics office. (n/t)

[KatyaR]

3. So when do we start calling them "massa?"

Cause that's where it feels like we're headed.

[liberal N proud]

4. These assholes are just fucking with workers and the American people

Just because they can?

[Hekate]

5. Straight from the Strongman Playbook again: gut the civil service, which is the institutional memory

....of laws, procedures and norms of any government.

Turkey just did that.