Holman rule

That case dealt with an act of Congress, passed during the Red Scare's McCarthyism, that defunded the salaries of 39 employees accused of having Communist sympathies.

The Court held that, under these circumstances, the Act was no "mere appropriation measure", but was effectively a bill of attainder prohibited by Article I, Section 9, of the Constitution.

[5] Its original effect was to allow any provision germane to the bill's subject matter that retrenched expenditures, but in 1880 its scope was reduced to apply to "the number and salary of officers of the United States, the reduction of compensation of any person paid out of the Treasury of the United States, or the reduction of the amounts of money covered by the bill."

[5] Democrats criticized the revival of the Holman rule as undermining civil service protections, and allowing the possibility that specific individuals could be targeted for political reasons.

A proposal offered by Morgan Griffith to eliminate 89 jobs at the Congressional Budget Office failed on July 26, 2017, on a vote of 116–309.

[15][16] There were also two additional amendments offered by Ron DeSantis that were approved by the House Rules Committee but did not receive a floor vote: one aimed at employees working on Guantanamo Bay Naval Base policy, as well as one for a single individual at the Army Corps of Engineers.

[14][17] In April 2018, the Republican Study Committee budget plan supported use of the rule to remove positions considered unneeded.

[4] In June 2023, Andy Biggs advocated using the Holman Rule to defund the Smith special counsel investigation.

[23] During the July 2023 House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing that heard the claims of whistle-blower David Grusch and retired U.S. fighter pilots Ryan Graves and David Fravor, into UFO reports and activity, Andy Ogles stated that he would be willing to advocate for invoking the Holman Rule to force the Department of Defense to disclose UFO-related or other hidden programs.