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WYDEN AMENDMENT TO END SECRET HOLDS
APPROVED BY SENATE
Previously, Senate rules allowed Senators
to block legislation anonymously;
Wyden’s amendment changes rules to require that ‘holds’
on legislation, nominations be publicly announced
March 28, 2006
Washington,
DC – After nearly a decade-long effort, the Senate today
passed an amendment by a vote of 84-13 to end the process of secret
holds championed by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), along with Senators
Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Ken Salazar
(D-Colo.). The Wyden-Grassley-Inhofe-Salazar amendment requires
a Senator who intends to object to a unanimous consent request
to publish in the Congressional Record within three days a notice
of the objection. It does not limit any Senator from putting a
hold a bill; it instead requires that the hold be made public.
“What is unjust about the
process of secret holds is that it prevents a Senator from being
held accountable when it comes to conducting the people’s
business,” said Wyden. “It’s time to force these
objections out of the shadows and into the sunshine.”
Today’s approval of the amendment
by the Senate is the latest step in a nearly 10 year effort by
Wyden and Grassley to end the practice of secret holds. In 1997
and again in 1998 the United States Senate voted unanimously in
favor of Grassley-Wyden amendments to require that a notice of
intent to object be published in the Congressional Record within
48 hours, but the amendments failed to survive conference proceedings.
In 1999, then-Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle
(D-S.D.) set forth a policy requiring all Senators wishing to
place a hold on any legislation or executive calendar business
to notify the sponsor of the legislation and the committee of
jurisdiction of their concerns. The new policy also indicated
that staff-initiated holds would not be honored without written
notification from the Senator. However, the use of secret holds
and staff-initiated holds eventually returned to common practice.
As a matter of practice, Wyden publicly
announces any “hold” he places on nominees or legislation;
he does so by placing a formal statement in the Congressional
Record.
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