Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, it has been more than 4 years since the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan resolution ending the ability of Senators to place secret holds as a way to block passage of legislation and confirmations of nominees. The resolution--which I worked on with our colleague from Iowa Senator Grassley for more than a decade, and Senator McCaskill joined in these efforts--overwhelmingly passed the Senate by a 92-to-4 vote. Under the resolution, Senators who object to requests to pass legislation by unanimous consent are supposed to record their opposition by sending notice to the cloakroom and to the Secretary of the Senate, notifying colleagues of their objection. The objection is then listed in the Senate Calendar on a page--I took today's with the title ``Notice of Intent to Object to Proceeding.''

Mr. President, if you look at the page in the Senate Calendar where holds on bills are supposed to be listed, right now you will find a single entry on the page. It concerns a public hold that I placed on the intelligence authorization legislation last July. I wish I could say the reason that only one objection to a unanimous consent request is listed in the Senate Calendar is that my objection is the only hold placed on a bill in the past few months.

Regrettably, that does not seem to be the case. For example, my colleague from New Hampshire has been talking about her bill, known as the CREED Act, S. 966. It was hotlined back on June 18 to determine if any Senator objected to passing that bill by unanimous consent. An objection was made after the bill was hotlined back in June, but the objecting Senator was not publicly identified as the timely objection was made. My understanding is that Senator Shaheen and her staff subsequently learned that multiple Senators had objected to passing her bill by unanimous consent, but not one of those Senators made their objection public through the notice requirements that were part of the bipartisan resolution.

I think it is important to note that Senator Shaheen's CREED Act was determined to have no cost to Federal taxpayers. It is funded entirely by fees paid by the borrowers and lenders under the SBA 504 Loan Program. It strikes me as a very good bill that would benefit America's economy.

I gather there are some Senators who might not agree about the value of the program, which, of course, is their right as Senators. But if they object to passing a bill, Senators ought to be publicly accountable. That is how we voted--92 to 4. They shouldn't be able to hide opposition behind anonymous objection. Senator Grassley and I and Senator McCaskill and others have said: Look, public business has got to be done in public. So Senator Grassley and I have publicly announced our holds by putting statements in the Congressional Record, and I don't think that Western civilization has exactly been harmed as a result of this kind of transparency and accountability.

I would like to ask my colleague Senator Shaheen, given her interest in living up to both the letter and the spirit of the bipartisan resolution, whether it is her intent to state a unanimous consent request at this time to ensure the kind of transparency and accountability that was envisioned in the bipartisan resolution.

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