Although its use was threatened in recent years, the rule never resulted in any direct impacts. Image: Nicole Glass Photography/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffRepublican leaders of the House are moving to reinstate the “Holman Rule” to allow members of Congress to move to cut pay of individual employees or to designate how many employees may be assigned to a function, including to abolish positions with no appeal rights allowed.
Such changes would have to be approved through the legislative process as part of appropriations bills, so the authority likely would not be used, or even attempted, often. However, reinstating the rule would be a message in and of itself. Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., one of the most active members of Congress on civil service issues, framed the rule as “a backdoor way for MAGA Republicans to dismantle the federal workforce and carry out political vendettas at the expense of career civil servants.”
The move is part of a package of internal operating rules that Republicans plan to adopt with their new majority.
A return of the Holman Rule would continue a back and forth that started when Republicans revived the rule — which had been dormant for more than three decades — when they took control of the House following the 2016 midterm elections.
Although its use was threatened several times in the following years, the rule never resulted in any direct impacts before Democrats in turn took control following the 2018 midterm elections and repealed it.
The operating rules also would establish a special panel on the “weaponization of the federal government” whose scope is not defined but presumably would include issues related to investigations of former President Trump since it would be part of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Justice Department and FBI.
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