The Senate Barbershop. Image from Library of Congress.

With the federal government set to cut spending across the board, little will be spared—not even a barbershop close to the hearts of many U.S. senators.

Roll Call reports today that the recent imposition of sequestration may finally lead to the privatization of the Senate Barbershop, the institution in basement of the Russell Senate Office Building that has been losing thousands of dollars annually for years. While senators have pushed back on such plans in the past, government-wide austerity might not save the barbershop this time from a privatization plan pushed by Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer:

Despite such losses, veteran senators and staunch defenders have over the years fought attempts to hand off the reins to a private vendor, including efforts championed by two of Gainer’s predecessors, Howard Liebengood in the early 1980s and Gregory Casey in the mid-1990s.

But now Gainer has the leverage of sequestration, which makes any plan that would save the legislative branch some money one to be taken seriously.

Gainer’s recommendation also comes at a convenient moment: The size of the barbershop’s staff is poised to shrink at the end of the month anyway, should four of the barbershop’s nine employees depart as planned as part of Gainer’s team-wide buyout program.

And senators who have generally stood together to ward off barbershop adversaries now appear to be warming to privatization.

The barbershop dates back to the 1860s, and one offered free haircuts and shaves to senators. But rising costs led to proposals that the operation be privatized dating as far back as 1951; it wasn’t until the 1970s that the shop was opened up to people other than senators and all customers were required to pay.

The barbershop is estimated to be losing some $350,000 a year; in 2012, senators bailed it out to the tune of $230,000.