House Republicans have introduced a bill to withhold pay from anyone they believe is in contempt of Congress.
Under the Farenthold bill, a contempt vote by the full House or the full Senate would be enough to trigger a pay suspension, meaning a federal court would not have to convict the employee in order for the policy to take effect. The legislation would not affect retirement pay, according to the sponsor’s office.
Not coincidentally, the only people this bill would currently effect are Attorney General Eric Holder and former IRS employee Lois Lerner.
Do you think this is politically motivated? You’d be naive not to think so.
The House voted to hold Eric Holder in contempt over Fast and Furious (remember Fast and Furious?) and the Oversight Committee voted to hold Lois Lerner in contempt because Chairman Darrell Issa is an ethically-criminal sack.
Darrell Issa and the Republicans have pursued these fake scandals for years and found virtually nothing. Now that they’re running out of bullshit avenues to stroll down, they want to punish the targets of their witch hunt by withholding their pay.
Thankfully there’s no chance in hell this will become law because, if it did, it would be open season. One chamber of Congress could unilaterally withhold someone’s pay under false pretense and with no conviction.
The name of the bill proposed by Representative Blake Farenthold (R-TX) and others is the Contempt Act.