GOP considers novel tactic to compel testimony if they win House: Defund a bureaucrat

[Valin]

 

Just The News

Aggressive oversight will only work if witnesses can be forced to tell the truth and comply with subpoenas, Rep. Andy Bigg says.

John Solmon

Sept. 3 2022

Republicans eager to begin aggressive oversight of the Biden administration if they win the House in November are already weighing options to resolve a key concern: how to compel witnesses to testify and turn over evidence when the Justice Department remains in Democrat hands. A prominent conservative is offering a novel solution: defund individual bureaucrats who don't comply with subpoenas.

"I think that they don't have the right to turn down that subpoena," Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told Just the News. "It seems to me that we're going to be able to hold you in contempt. Our problem, of course, is the contempt law, the way it's written, we end up having to go to, of all places, [Attorney General] Merrick Garland. That means getting the Department of Justice, trying to get him to help us enforce that subpoena.

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The Holman Rule was created in 1876 and named after an Indiana congressman who conceived of letting any member of Congress move to amend an appropriations bill to single out a government employee or cut a specific program. The measure would have to be approved by a majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate.

 

The arcane rule had fallen out of sight for decades, but in 2017 House Republicans revived it to allow any federal bureaucrat's salary to be cut to $1 in an effort to force spending cuts on agencies or programs unwilling to reduce spending.

Biggs believes the rule could be further adapted to reduce the pay of any government witness who refuses to comply with a congressional subpoena seeking evidence or testimony.

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