Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed an modification on Wednesday that might slash Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin’s funds to $1.John Ochieng, Benjamin Hendren/Getty Pictures
A authorities shutdown is looming as Republican lawmakers wrestle to agree on a funding plan.
In the meantime, a faction of hard-right GOP members moved to chop Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin’s wage.
The proposal from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is prone to go nowhere.
As Congress scrambles to drum up a plan to avert a authorities shutdown, hard-right lawmakers curiously proposed a transfer to chop the wage of Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin to $1.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed an modification to slash Austin’s wage on the Home flooring on Wednesday, placing the proposal to a voice vote.
A number of unidentified lawmakers voted “aye,” permitting the modification to be positioned in a protection appropriation invoice. However the modification is prone to go nowhere because the spending invoice was already doomed to fail within the Senate. Including Austin’s wage reduce would make passing the invoice that rather more unlikely.
Greene’s proposal was supported by a bunch of unidentified Republicans — a transfer to presumably placate the handful of laborious proper conservatives, together with Greene, who’re presently holding up funding plans for the federal government.
On X, previously Twitter, Greene stated that Austin is “squarely” guilty for a way the US’s withdrawal from Afghanistan unraveled.
Through the exit in the summertime of 2021, the Biden administration struggled to get the remaining army forces and Afghan allies in another country, underestimating simply how shortly Taliban forces would overthrow the Afghan authorities.
Greene set her crosshairs on Austin earlier in September, posting on X that he had “failed in his position as Secretary of Protection and has jeopardized the nationwide safety of america.”
A Pentagon spokesperson stated in a press release to Insider that “it could be inappropriate to touch upon pending laws.”
Austin, a retired four-star Military common, is the primary Black secretary of protection and was confirmed 93-2 by a Senate committee in 2021. The 2 votes towards had been from Republican senators Josh Hawley and Mike Lee.
Austin’s wage is $221,000, in response to Army Occasions.
The federal government is simply days away from a shutdown that might put hundreds of federal staff briefly out of labor. As a consequence, SNAP advantages, social safety funds, and even air journey might be in danger.
On September 21, a number of hard-right Republicans continued to stifle progress on a spending agenda after rejecting a protection invoice that usually receives bipartisan assist.
“This can be a entire new idea of people who simply need to burn the entire place down,” Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy stated after Thursday’s vote. “It would not work.”
A spokesperson for Greene didn’t reply to a request for remark.
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