Restoring American Finacial Stability Act of 2010 - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, thank you very much.

Let me particularly express my appreciation to the chairman of the full committee, Senator Dodd. He has been extraordinarily patient, and especially with the large bipartisan coalition that has come together behind this amendment to ensure that finally the secret hold in the Senate--one of the most powerful tools a Senator has in the Senate--is no longer.

I say to the Presiding Officer, you have done very good work on this issue, along with a number of colleagues on both sides of the aisle. The reason we feel so strongly is because the secret hold in the Senate is an indefensible violation of the public's right to know.

We all understand every time we are home in our States how frustrated people are with the way business is done in Washington, DC. One way to send a message we are going to start doing business differently is to throw open the doors of government and to make sure nominations and legislation that is important gets debated in public, and people actually get to see the give-and-take of colleagues on both sides of the aisle--Democrats and Republicans--that is essential to making good policy.

Most Americans have no idea what a secret hold is, and I have said on many occasions that my guess is a lot of them think this is some kind of hair spray or something. But the fact is, this is an extraordinary tool that Senators have to effect the lives of our people, and it ought to be something that is exposed to public scrutiny and public accountability.

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton said: That is where the money is. In the Senate, secret holds are where the power is.

What our bipartisan group has said is, it is wrong for a Senator to block a piece of legislation or a nomination in secret by simply telling the leader of their party of their desire. What this has meant--and there have been scores and scores of these secret holds in recent years--is that one person, without any public disclosure whatsoever, can keep the American people from even getting a small peek at what is public business. That is not right, and it is time to eliminate secret holds.

In 2007, Senators on both sides of the aisle sought to finally bring some sunlight to this practice. Senator Grassley, the distinguished Senator from Iowa, and I have worked on this for over a decade. Unfortunately, a number of loopholes have been developed since that provision was accepted, and today too much Senate business is done in the dark, unaccountable, and away from public scrutiny and public exposure.

This amendment closes the loopholes, and it is going to be enforced. With this approach, every hold--every single hold--is going to have a public owner within 2 days.

I want to close by just briefly describing how this would work. Under this proposal, if a Senator puts a hold on a bill or a nomination, they are required to submit a written notice in the Congressional Record within 2 days. When that bill or nomination comes to the floor, and any Senator objects to its consideration on the grounds of a hold, one of two things is going to happen: either the Senator placing the secret hold is going to have their name publicly released, or the Senator who objected on their behalf is going to own that hold. That Senator will own it. Their name is going to be published in the congressional calendar.

So for the first time--after all of these months and months of debate about secret holds in the Senate--there is going to be public pressure and peer pressure on those who try to do Senate business behind closed doors.

Two last points with respect to reforms included in this amendment: The proposal eliminates the ability that a Senator now has to lift a hold before the current 6-day period expires and never have it disclosed.

The Presiding Officer and I have talked a bit about this matter of revolving holds in a 6-day period. This has been a huge abuse. It has allowed a Senator to do business in secret and never have it recorded. With this new bipartisan proposal, if a Senator places a hold, even for a day, even for a minute, the hold is going to be disclosed.

Finally, the proposal makes it harder for a group of Senators to replace revolving holds on a nomination or bill. With the 6-day time period, a group of Senators can pass a hold from one colleague to another and never have it discussed. By requiring all holds to be made public, it will be much more difficult to find new Senators to place revolving holds.

The last point: It seems to me, in addition to taking a step the country feels very strongly about, which is doing more public business in public, this is being done in a bipartisan way. This is being done in a way that can bring Democrats and Republicans together, in a way that doesn't involve a lot of fingerpointing. I wish to mention a number of colleagues: the Presiding Officer, the distinguished Senator from Virginia, has been very constructive and has had many conversations with me about this; Senator Inhofe, Senator Collins, and Senator Grassley. Senator Inhofe has been talking about this issue with me and others for almost a decade as well. Senator Bennet, Senator Merkley, Senator Whitehouse, all of these Senators, a large, bipartisan group come together to urge the passage of this amendment. I want to single out too, though, for particular commendation, Mrs. McCaskill, the Senator from Missouri, because we wouldn't be on this floor today had not the Senator from Missouri prosecuted this cause relentlessly. She has brought to light the number of holds. When we have talked about it, she has made the point that this has gone on on both sides of the aisle. She deserves great credit for this reform being made today.

Let me also thank Senator Coburn--Dr. Coburn--of Oklahoma. He has been very involved in reform issues for many years. We are looking forward to an additional reform he is going to be advancing that I look forward to sponsoring.

I wrap up only by way of trying to highlight that after the Senate has spent a lot of time discussing secret holds over the last few months, on a bipartisan basis, the Senate comes together today with an approach that has actually brought Senators together and is going to ensure that every single secret hold is going to have an owner. That is going to be a big change. It is high time. The public deserves to have public business actually done in public, and with the adoption of this amendment, that will be done.

The chairman of the full committee has been very gracious to me. I wish to ask for the yeas and nays at this time, and I wish to engage the chairman of the full committee in a colloquy. The chairman has been very helpful with respect to scheduling this.

Is it the pleasure of the chairman of the committee that now, having debated this, we set it aside for a vote later in the day?

Mr. DODD. My pleasure is we have the vote on the Wyden-Grassley amendment. So whenever that can occur, I am for it. We can do it right now. I am for it now.

Mr. WYDEN. I am ready to go to the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I withdraw that request. I thank the chairman of the committee.

Mr. DODD. It is not my sole decision, of course.

Mr. WYDEN. The chairman of the full committee has been very patient with us. He has done an extraordinary amount of work. Let us, with that request, hold off on the yeas and nays, and I ask the chairman that it be scheduled with the next group of votes.

Mr. DODD. I can say to my colleague from Oregon that I expect momentarily we will work out some time agreements and we will schedule a vote fairly quickly.

Mr. WYDEN. I thank the chairman.

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President and colleagues, the American people are furious at the way business is done in Washington, DC. Today, on the floor of the Senate, we saw a pretty good reason why.

For many months, a large group of Senators on both sides of the aisle--Senator Grassley, Senator Inhofe, Senator Collins, and Senator Bennett, among the Republicans; a host of my colleagues on our side of the aisle, led by Senator McCaskill--have been working to try to eliminate the secret hold in the Senate, which is, in my view, one of the most pernicious, most antidemocratic practices in government.

What the secret hold allows is for just one Senator--just one--to anonymously keep the American people from getting any sense of a particular piece of legislation, someone who has been nominated for an appointment--any sense of some of the most important business that is before the Senate.

The Senator from Missouri, who is in the Chamber, has noted that at times there are scores and scores of these secret holds. I have pointed out this has happened for years on both sides of the aisle.

So this has been an opportunity, when the country is crying out for bipartisanship, for Democrats and Republicans to together--as our large group has done--fix this, to open our government, to ensure that democracy is accountable, and that public business is actually done in public.

Until about an hour or so ago, I thought we would win a dramatic victory for the cause of open government. We had a good debate this morning on the measure. Colleagues on both sides of the aisle talked about it.

Not one Senator objected, not one was willing to say in public they were in favor of secret holds. Quite the opposite: We talked for some time, and no one objected at all. We were under the impression that the matter would be scheduled for a vote this afternoon.

Given that, I was flabbergasted that right before it was time to vote, one Senator--just one--without any notice whatever--no notice to me, no notice to any of the other sponsors, sponsors on the other side of the aisle--one Senator sought to attach to our amendment, which would have received a resounding vote because Senators are not going to vote in favor of secrecy when they are on the record--one Senator attached a completely unrelated matter, a very controversial matter.

I say to the Chair, I say to all my colleagues, I never, ever would have done that to another colleague. I have felt for many years now that the great challenge in the Senate is to have colleagues work together, to have colleagues come together on both sides, because that is going to help us advance the cause of open government, it is going to help us get the best possible policy.

So if I had been in our colleague's shoes, and I was interested in advancing this other issue, I would have come to that particular Senator and said: How can we work this out? That did not happen. So all of us, at the last minute, when we were looking forward to celebrating what, in my view, would have been a historic vote for open government, after all these months of Democrats and Republicans debating secrecy in government, we now sit here on Thursday evening, with secrecy having won once more, doing government in the shadows winning once more, denying the American people the accountability this institution is all about winning once again.

I think the American people deserve better. We spent a lot of time today bringing all sides together. The chairman of the committee, Senator Dodd, is here with us. The whole essence of the Wall Street legislation has been to ensure more openness and more accountability in these essential financial transactions. Chairman Dodd has done a superb job in advancing that case.

What Senators on both sides of the aisle sought to do, until there was an objection from one Senator at the last minute--with no notice--what we sought to do was to say: If we are going to open our system of financial transactions so there would be more transparency and more accountability, let's also open the way we do business in the Senate so the American people are not kept in the dark any longer about major judgments with respect to legislation or nominations. One Senator--just one--without notice, kept us from bringing that new accountability and openness to the Senate.

I know colleagues want to bring up other matters. I simply wish to say--I think I have been in this body now for a little over a decade--I cannot recall another instance where the cause of open government took a beating, took a blindsiding, like the cause of open government took this afternoon.

I wish to tell my colleagues, I intend to come back to my post here again and again and again until we abolish the secret hold, until we ensure that the American people see that government is being brought out of the shadows and debates are out in the open, where they ought to be.

We did not win this afternoon because I think we got kneecapped. I do not know how to describe it any other way. But I do not think, at this time in American history, where the American people are this angry--this angry--at the way Washington, DC, does business, that those who advocate secrecy are on the right side of history. I do not think they are going to be able to defend in broad daylight opposing a bipartisan coalition.

Senator Grassley has worked with me on this for a decade. He has, again and again, championed the cause of transparency and openness in government, not just on this question of abolishing secret holds but on inspectors general and a variety of other practices.

So these are colleagues--Democrats and Republicans--who want to show the American people they are going to stand for open government, and they are going to do it in a way where the American people will say: Those folks finally get it. Instead of spending their time in these petty food fights, they are a group of Democrats and Republicans who acted like adults and got together and solved a major problem--a major problem--by eliminating secrecy and making government more open.

So it is my intent to come back, if possible, day in and day out until this changes. I think this is unconscionable. I can tell you, I have never seen anything like this in my time in the Senate: one Senator coming in, at the last moment, with no notice, trying to derail the cause of open government.

I am not going to stand for it. I do not think the American people are going to stand for it. We will be back here for as long as it takes to bring some real sunshine to this cause of the Senate doing its business in public rather than in the shadows.

I yield the floor.

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