Senate custom of ‘holds’ puts brakes on bills, appointments

February 21, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The shadowy practice of Senate “holds” — the power of one lawmaker to block nominations or legislation indefinitely — is a big reason the Senate is gridlocked.

In an age when information flies across the Internet instantly, the Senate continues to conduct crucial business with this throwback to a time when gentlemen’s agreements were the chief currency of the legislative process. In fact, holds appear to be more popular than ever.

There’s no easy way for the public to learn what’s being held up or who’s responsible.

“There is hardly any public record of who places holds, how it is done [often by letter to the party leader], how many holds are placed on any bill or how long they will be honored by the majority leadership,” a 2008 Congressional Research Service study said. Senate Democratic and Republican leaders’ offices last week couldn’t provide any firm data on holds.

As a result, “one senator can subvert the entire democratic process. We don’t have the Senate confirming political appointees promptly, and that means decisions are not made at agencies,” said Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a watchdog group.

The custom dates to the mid-19th century, and it became widely used beginning in the 1960s, when party leaders saw it as a way to make individual senators feel powerful.

“But the flip side was that it gave every senator a veto, even the freshmen,” Senate historian Donald Ritchie said.

The tactic has soared into the limelight recently because of some well-publicized holds. In one, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., blocked Martha Johnson’s confirmation as the head of the General Services Administration because he was annoyed by how the agency handled complaints about a troubled Kansas City federal center.

Once President Barack Obama complained publicly after a nine-month delay, the Senate approved Johnson unanimously; even Bond ended up backing her.

“It’s not as though they were dissatisfied by the qualifications of the nominees. They say, ‘I’ll just take hostages,’ until they get attention,” said Norman Ornstein, an expert on Congress at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research center.

Holds are popular with most senators; Democrats as well as Republicans have engaged in the practice routinely for years.

After Obama’s first year, the Senate had confirmed 353 of his 569 major nominations. During President George W. Bush’s first year, when Democrats controlled the Senate for about eight months, 513 people were nominated and 360 confirmed, according to the White House Transition Project, which studies new administrations.

The hold process clearly “delays democracy,” said Terry Sullivan, an associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the transition project’s executive director.