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Exposing Washington's Best-Kept 'Secret Hold'

Every August, lawmakers leave Washington for relaxing summer vacations, taxpayer-funded junkets abroad, low-key field hearings and high-dollar fundraisers. In even-numbered years, the few incumbents whose jobs are threatened have more hectic campaign schedules, but for the most part, lawmakers don't have to answer tough questions in the month whose name is linked to external triumph and internal peace in the Roman Empire.

Not so this August -- at least not for the 100 unfortunate souls who happen to hold U.S. Senate seats when bloggers across the political spectrum are in a feisty mood. Those bloggers are hot and bothered not by the temperature and summer humidity but instead by the time-honored Senate tradition known as the "secret hold," and they are doing their best to break that hold against policymaking accountability.

The procedural hold in this case is on a bill that would create a public, searchable Web site of all federal grants and contracts in an effort to deter pork-barrel spending in lawmakers' states and districts. Senate tradition allows senators to place such holds anonymously as a way to delay or prevent floor action.

The year-old blog-inspired Porkbusters brigade took up the cause against the current hold several days ago, with Instapundit as one of the leaders. In recent days, the moderate Republican blog GOPProgress and the liberal TPM Muckraker have joined the fight.

Other blogs either involved in the effort or that have plugged it include Captain's Quarters, the Center for Citizen Media, The Club For Growth, Craigblog, Daily Kos and the Sunlight Foundation blog In Broad Daylight. "Here's a no-brainer, zero-cost, pure people-power issue for Democrats to latch onto for November: Get rid of this 'secret hold' crap in the Senate," SusanG wrote at Daily Kos.

Writers and readers of the participating blogs are calling senators and demanding to know whether they are behind the anonymous hold, and the bloggers are tallying the lists of denials and remaining suspects. As of yesterday, they had narrowed the list of suspects to less than a half-dozen (differences exist in the lists on each blog).

"I think we will see the unmasking next week," said Mark Tapscott, the editorial-page editor of The Examiner and the blogger who on Aug. 16 first invited his online colleagues to tackle the issue. "And between that and the coming revelations produced by our earmarks project, the blogosphere's capacity to influence major policy directions in Congress will be clearly established."

The issue also has spurred two laudatory posts by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., at his VOLPAC blog. "This is a moment for participatory democracy in action, an unprecedented cooperation between Senate leadership and the blogosphere to pass a bill," he wrote.

Blogger Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters also put questions about the hold and the bill directly to Frist on Tuesday when he was in Minneapolis, and Frist publicly praised the work of bloggers again.

"The first step is to put it out there so people can read it," Frist said of the legislation. "Probably only 10 of 100 people have read it. But when we get back [to Washington next week], people will know about it because you all have done such a great job with it."

Other bloggers, including Robert Bluey of Capital Briefs, previously vowed to hold Frist himself accountable for following through on getting the anti-pork measure to the floor. But Kathryn Jean Lopez of The Corner remained skeptical (at least she was last week, before the outcry against anonymous holds crossed partisan lines) that anything good will come of the latest blog swarm.

"I have my doubts anything will happen -- and gauging the mood of some Senate staff yesterday I didn't notice optimism but the same-old-Senate realism in the air," she wrote. "Bill Frist could have made some news yesterday; instead he just used the blogosphere to expand his misleadership."

Whatever the outcome on exposing the hold against the anti-pork bill, blogger Tim Chapman of the Heritage Foundation warned his conservative colleagues against scrapping the hold in general. He said it has proved to be a valuable procedural tool for stalling many a liberal bill and pointed to a pro-hold speech by Alabama Republican Jeff Sessions, a leading Senate opponent of pork.

"[W]ithout a hold, the bill goes to the Senate floor and passes with unanimous consent for fear of opposing a politically popular piece of legislation that is often either not constitutional or further bloats the federal government," Chapman wrote. "In this case, unamous consent is often anything but. It is more like unanimous ignorance."

CORRECTION: I've fixed the text to credit Jeff Sessions, rather than Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, as being the lawmaker who made the speech in favor of anonymous holds. Flake has been a key House player in the fight against pork. Thanks to two readers for noting my error in the comments.

Posted by Danny | 04:13 PM

Comments

that should be Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Jeff Flake is an outstanding Congressman from Arizona.

ross | 08.30.06 10:16 AM

I think you mean Arizona Republican Jeff Flake.
Alabama's Jeff Sessions is halfway decent on the subject of pork while Richard Shelby's website is a testament to the pork he brings home

chuck myguts | 08.30.06 10:36 AM

Jeff Flake is wrong. Nobody is saying holds shouldn't be a tool. But the disturbing lack of transparency needs to be addressed.

KirkH | 08.30.06 10:37 AM

"...for fear of opposing a politically popular piece of legislation." - Send the bastard home.

"...that is often either not constitutional" - send it to the courts.

"...bloats the federal government." - thats the point.

libertex | 08.30.06 12:35 PM

KirkH got it right. I can see where a hold could prove useful, in many legit ways. But an anonymous hold is too easy to abuse.
However, I am confused regarding comments I read whereby the hold is only anonymous for three days. If that were true then why aren't we familiar with "the hold", having read about instances in the MSM. Are they not reporting its use? Doesn't make sense.

mikem | 08.30.06 04:10 PM

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