Pay for performance is a popular concept, where those who do their jobs well get raises while those who don't have their pay cut.
That’s the model U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, said she supports for U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for his poor handling of the southern border crisis. If she had her way, his annual salary would be slashed to $1.
In a Wednesday Twitter post, Hageman said she’s happy to be a co-sponsor on an amendment being considered in the House to reduce Mayorkas’ salary to $1 a year, but she also said she’d be happier if President Joe Biden “would secure our borders now.”
Reps. Claudia Tenney, R-New York, and Chip Roy, R-Texas, are leading the push to include the amendment on a Homeland Security appropriations bill that would reduce the secretary’s salary to $1. The amendment, co-sponsored by eight other members of Congress, including Republican Ryan Zinke of Montana, would use a rule that allows lawmakers to cut federal officials’ salaries.
"None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to pay Secretary Alejandro Nicholas Mayorkas a salary that exceeds $1," the amendment states.
If passed, the amendment would mark a significant pay cut for Mayorkas, who makes $203,500 a year in his role.
A Target
Hageman and other Republicans have made Mayorkas a target over the immigration situation at the southern border, which has been described by some as a “crisis” fueled by Biden’s policies.
In August, Roy and more than a dozen Texas House Republicans called for lawmakers to stop funding the Department of Homeland Security until a number of steps are taken "to secure the border.”
The Biden administration has defended Mayorkas and says the agency needs more money from Congress and comprehensive legislation to fix what it describes as a "broken" system that hasn’t been updated in decades. According to Fox News, that legislation has been rejected by Republicans who say it provides a pathway to immediate citizenship for millions of immigrants.
Hageman And Mayorkas
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing in July, Hageman told Mayorkas she considers him a liar and “tyrant.”
At the hearing, Mayorkas touted the work his administration has been doing on border security, saying the Department of Homeland Security has been able to secure the border despite working within a broken system.
"Our approach to managing the border securely and humanely, even within our fundamentally broken immigration system, is working," he said.
Mayorkas said unlawful entries between ports of entry along the southwest border have consistently decreased by more than half compared to the peak before the end of the Title 42 public health order. He also denied that the border is “open” and that fentanyl trafficking was a problem at the border before Biden took office.
In an August guest column, Hageman continued to blast Mayorkas’ handling of border security.
“Under the Secretary’s ‘leadership’ our borders are NOT secure,” she wrote. “In addition to the 5.6 million unlawful entries, which is equivalent to 10 times the population of Wyoming, over 40% of the illegals that were initially detained have disappeared upon being released into the country without so much as an initial hearing.”
Similar to her support for an effort to impeach Biden, Hageman said Mayorkas should either resign “in disgrace” or be removed from his post by Congress.
“Mr. Mayorkas is not up to the task of securing our borders and has violated his oath of office almost since the day that he was sworn in,” she writes. “It is also clear that he has used his office and power to silence the voices of anyone that disagrees with the Biden agenda or disputes the so-called ‘facts’ as created by government bureaucrats.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
