Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. BENNET. Madam President, I join my colleagues in support of the effort Senator Wyden and Senator Grassley have led to end the corrosive practice of secret holds. This is a reform that is needed and cannot wait.

I have been in Washington for only about a year, but it did not take that long to realize our government needs to fundamentally change the way it does business. Coloradans deserve a government that works for them. They are tired of the petty partisanship in Washington. They want their elected officials to listen and address their day-to-day concerns. I cannot think of a worse example of this dysfunction than the secret hold. It is undemocratic, and it is hurting our economy.

Quite a few of us in the Senate--the chairman and I--have young daughters, young kids who are familiar with the ups and downs of a long car ride heading out on vacation. The first hour always seems to go pretty well, full of excitement about where everybody is headed. But it is not long before that excitement turns to restlessness and that restlessness turns to secretly doing everything they can to bother their siblings just for the sake of doing it. And every time you turn around, they stop and smile and claim their innocence.

It never occurred to me that experience would actually prepare me to come to the Senate. Countless nominations and important legislation make their way to the floor. Senators make speeches about the importance of doing the country's business, appearing motivated to get the job done, to get the American people's work done. But when the cameras are off, they use the secret hold to bring this progress to a stop.

Since I have been here, I have seen nominees and bipartisan legislation held up for weeks, only to pass with 97 or 98 votes, all to score political points and waste the American people's time and the American people's money.

Earlier this year, we spent months working to reform health care. We have spent a lot of time under the chairman's leadership trying to fix Wall Street. It is past time we fix the way Washington works as well.

Congress must stop living under a glass dome. The Wyden-Grassley amendment is simple. It requires any Senator seeking to hold up the Nation's business to publicly announce his or her hold. All holds should be in writing, made public for the other 99 of us and, most importantly, for the American people so they can render their own judgment.

While I support this amendment, I have legislation that would go even further. My legislation would not only end secret holds, as this amendment does, but also require that any hold be bipartisan or else it expires after 2 legislative days. All holds, public or private, would expire in 30 days. At that point, the pending business would be ready to be considered on the Senate floor.

The Senate was designed to be the greatest deliberative body in the world. Let's have the debate and put an end to these secretive attempts to prevent debate.

Once again, I thank Senators Wyden and Grassley for their leadership and look forward to the passage of this amendment. I also wish to recognize the great work our colleague from Missouri, Claire McCaskill, has done bringing this legislation to this point.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

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