Restoring American Finacial Stability Act of 2010 - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, along with Senator Grassley, I am introducing as an amendment to the financial reform bill, S. 3217, our bipartisan resolution to amend Senate rules to eliminate secret holds.

The legislation now before the Senate is intended to bring greater openness and accountability to Wall Street and other financial institutions. At the same time the Senate is reforming how financial markets do business, there is no better time for the Senate to reform the process for how the Senate conducts its own business.

Under current Senate rules, it is still possible for Senators to use secret holds to block legislation or nominations from coming to the floor without having to give any reason. There is no openness or accountability to anyone when a Senator places a secret hold.

The Senate should not have a double standard that requires greater openness and accountability on Wall Street while tolerating a practice that keeps both the public and colleagues in the dark with no accountability to anyone.

That is why Senator Grassley and I are offering our bipartisan proposal to end the practice of secret Senate holds as an amendment to the financial reform bill. Because our amendment would eliminate secret holds by amending Senate rules, I hereby give notice of our intent to amend the Senate rules by filing the Wyden-Grassley amendment to S. 3217.

I urge colleagues to support this bipartisan reform of Senate rules.

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