Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Missouri for kicking off this discussion. I rise in strong support of this effort by a group of reform-minded Senators to finally get rid of this ridiculous and insane practice of anonymous holds. The American people have little patience for this political game when they are going through what they are going through.

What people should understand is, at least in my view, this is less about partisanship. The Senator from Missouri talked about the fact that these are people who passed unanimously out of committee, with Republicans and Democrats supporting the nominees who somehow, between the committee process and the Senate floor, got stuck. They are getting stuck anonymously. I say it is not about partisanship. I say this is a perfect illustration of Washington, DC, being completely out of touch with what is going on in the country.

No one else in the country invents a set of rules to make sure they do not get their work done. But that is what we are doing in the Senate. That is why I think it is high time we got rid of these anonymous holds. I would go even further. I have legislation that gets rid of the anonymous holds and bans these secret holds. But it would do more. It would also require that a hold be bipartisan or else it expires after 2 legislative days. If a Senator wants to place a hold, that is within their rights, but we are going to make sure it is scrutinized. We are going to make sure they can get support from somebody on the other side of the aisle for holding up the country's business. All holds under my bill would expire after 30 days, whether they are bipartisan or not.

I also wish to highlight that the Senators who have taken this strong stance against secret holds are willing to put our money where our mouth is. While Washington bats around about this and other reforms, we have all pledged that we will stop the practice of secret holds ourselves. It was easy for me to do because I have never placed a secret hold on the Nation's business, and I never will.

This is a small but important illustration of what is not working well in the Senate, what is blocking progress for the American people. It is a small step but an important step to demonstrate that we can actually do our work differently, that we have been sent here to have an open and thoughtful debate about the issues that confront our great country. I am proud to be here today with my other colleagues.

I yield the floor.

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