The Holman Rule is a potent tool for targeting civil servants.
So what is the Holman Rule, and why is it so important to hard-right MAGA conservatives?
The basic structure remained consistent throughout the hundred-plus years it was in place: It allowed for specific provisions to reduce or eliminate the salaries of individual federal employees or offices. This creates a mechanism for legislators to, in effect, fire individual federal employees with appropriations riders on must-pass government funding bills.
Freedom Caucus Members then proposed Holman Rule actions to punish federal employees.
Their more recent history with the Holman Rule is very concerning.
On August 5, 2022, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) publicly called for use of the Holman Rule to “start defunding some of these bad agencies—the FBI, the DOJ.”
It is not a coincidence that the people seeking to defund the FBI and the Justice Department are people who were heavily involved in the plot to overturn the 2020 election, which has since become the subject of the largest criminal investigation in American history.