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Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney (D-WY) was photographed getting a shave and a haircut in the Senate barbershop on July 12, 1937, shortly before going to the Senate floor for "battle" on a court reform bill. (Library of Congress) After lathering up deficits of roughly $350,000 a year over the past 15 years, Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer says it’s time to give the U.S. Senate barbershop a trim, the Weekly Standard reports.
The Senate barbershop -- which opened in 1859 -- provides government subsidized haircuts, shaves and shoe shines to both the political elite and members of the public. However, Gainer says that due to its unsustainable business model, it’s time, as the Weekly Standard put it, to give the barbershop a new style: privatization.
Gainer has attempted to privatize the Senate barbershop over the past few years, but now says the current federal deficit battles are giving him enough leverage to finally get his plan through.
“I’ve accelerated my goal to get there leveraging sequestration” Gainer told the Weekly Standard. “The only real way we’re going to change this thing around without pricing ourselves out of the market is by reducing the number of full time employees.”
In 2012, the Senate barbershop, officially named Senate Hair Care Services, received a $300,000 taxpayer funded bailout to keep its doors open.
The salon -- which provided free services to Senate members until the 1970s -- does charge for its services and serves an estimated 27,000 customers a year. However, former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) attributes the barbershop’s financial troubles to the fact that it employs federal workers, who, Fitzgerald says, are paid substantially higher than private-sector stylists.
“They are using union labor, and so their benefits and wages are higher than those of many jobs,” Fitzgerald told The Daily in response to the 2012 bailout.
According to the Weekly Standard report, the Senate Hair Care Services’ head barber earns nearly an annual $80,000 -- well above the annual income $28,050 of average U.S. barbers. Privatizing the Senate salon would allow Gainer to hire independent contractors at a lower salary.
The House of Representatives has its own barbershop as well, known as the Capitol Barber. However, after being privatized in the mid 90s, the House barbershop is no longer funded by taxpayers. In 2012, the House salon’s barbers and stylists made significantly less than their Senate barber counterparts, earning between $22,000 to $30,000.
On Tuesday, the Senate barbershop’s deficit problems became a late night punch line, as comedian Jay Leno spun a positive perspective on the salon’s monetary losses.
“The United States Senate is now fighting to keep open the Senate barbershop...it loses $350,000 a year,” Leno said on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “You know what that makes it? The most successful government program ever!”
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About half of the sequestration consists of defense spending cuts, which would "drastically" shrink the military and cancel defense contracts, according to the House Armed Services Committee. (John Cantlie/Getty Images)
The sequestration would slash funding for the government's emergency response system for disasters such as hurricanes, according to the White House. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Checks for unemployed people looking for work would shrink by up to 9 percent, according to the White House. (J Pat Carter/AP Photo)
More than 100,000 formerly homeless people would lose their current housing as a result of sequestration, according to the White House. (Mark Lennihan/AP Photo)
About 125,000 low-income families would be at risk of losing their housing because of rental assistance cuts, according to the White House. (Barry Gutierrez/AP Photo)
The sequestration would eliminate care for up to 373,000 "seriously mentally ill" people, according to the White House. (Eric Gay/AP Photo)
The FDA would conduct fewer food inspections as a result of sequestration, according to the White House. (Mike Hentz/AP Photo)
About 70,000 children would lose access to the early education program Head Start as a result of the sequestration, according to the White House. (Elaine Thompson/AP Photo)
The government's small business loan guarantees would get slashed by nearly $1 billion as a result of the sequestration, according to the White House. (Steven Senne/AP Photo)
The sequestration would slash scientific research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), according to the White House. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Up to 424,000 HIV tests would be on the chopping block as a result of sequestration, according to the White House. Thousands of people with HIV also would lose access to "life-saving" HIV medications. (Darren Abate/AP Images for AIDS Healthcare Foundation)
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