The House of Representatives just voted to reduce the salary of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to just $1 in a bipartisan spending bill, though the bill will need to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate to become law.
The appropriations bill, focused on Homeland Security, secured just two Democrat votes: Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and Rep. Marie Fluesenkamp Perez of Washington, with that low Democrat participation indicating that it likely will not pass the Senate. Still, the bill is a symbolic rebuke of Secretary Mayorkas’s refusal or inability to keep the southern border secure, leading to the tidal wave of immigration with which America is now dealing. Introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, the bill uses the Homan rule to alter the salary of a single government employee, in this case, Secretary Mayorkas.
The amendment, which was introduced earlier in September, at which time Reps. Claudia Tenney of New York and Chip Roy of Texas were leading the charge, provides, “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to pay Secretary Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas a salary that exceeds $1.”
Rep. Biggs posted about the bill on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Last night, the House unanimously passed my amendment to defund Secretary Mayorkas’ salary to $0 via the Holman Rule. He is in dereliction of his duties and doesn’t deserve a penny more. If my colleagues won’t impeach him and he won’t resign, this is the next step.” Speaking about the amendment to Fox News Digital, Rep. Tenney said, “Secretary Mayorkas should not be paid hundreds of thousands of tax dollars to continually fail to protect American taxpayers from threats crossing our borders.”
Continuing, Tenney added, “Thanks to Secretary Mayorkas’ work, or lack thereof, there have been at least 5.8 million illegal crossings of our southern border since Biden took office, turning all our communities into border communities.” Tenney also said, “If the President is refusing to fire him for his dereliction of duty, his salary must reflect his failures.”
Rep. Roy, for his part, said, “It’s time to end this border crisis once and for all. The American people have no obligation to keep paying a federal official who refuses to do his job and uphold his oath, and that’s why we should zero out Mayorkas’ salary. I’m glad to work with Rep. Tenney in this fight to regain operational control of the border.”
DHS, for its part, characterized the House as being the problem rather than Mayorkas and Biden. “While the House Majority has wasted months trying to score points with baseless attacks, Secretary Mayorkas has been doing his job and working to keep Americans safe,” a DHS spokesperson said.
“Instead of continuing their reckless charades and attacks on law enforcement, Congress should work with us to keep our country safe, build on the progress DHS is making, and deliver desperately needed reforms for our broken immigration system that only legislation can fix,” the statement from DHS continued.
