Byrd admits that he placed the “secret hold;” Did it for the “American People”
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd admits that he placed a “secret hold” on legislation that would make uncovering the Byzantine world of federal contracting as easy as typing a Google search.
Tom Gavin, spokesperson for Byrd, confirmed to Cox Newspapers that the senator placed the hold on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., before voting on the measure.
Byrd joins Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, for holding up the bill right before Congress left town on August 4.
Byrd merely wanted more time to evaluate the legislation that would create a new database of some $2.5 trillion in federal spending on contracts, loans, financial assistance and insurance.
“Senator Byrd wanted time to read the legislation, understand its implications, and see whether the proposal could be improved,” Gavin said.
Byrd has released his hold, now that there “has been time to better understand the legislation,” Gavin said.
But Byrd is unapologetic about using his hold power.
“The American people ought to demand that bills receive scrutiny by senators before those bills are approved,” Gavin said. “We have seen the consequences of rushing legislation through the Senate without any time for review or understanding.”
He’s sort of right in a back-handed way. The best way for this bill to receive scrutiny was for a Senator to secretly place the bill on hold and create a massive “whodunit?” Given the awareness of the bill, its bipartisan support, and its obvious merit (i.e., who really wants to argue against the “American people” getting at least some idea where their $2.5 trillion is going), it’s going to be hard for even the porkiest of senators (e.g., Stevens) to stop it. Thank you Senator Byrd.
h/t: Ace of Spades who added “So, his spokeswoman lied.”
tags: secret senator senator stevens bridge to nowhere
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September 1st, 2006 at 3:10 pm
I spouted off on Independent Sources that there was no such thing as a “secret hold”. I did that because I am fairly familiar with the House of Representative rules. However, I had never pondered or dealt with the US Senate, which is a different animal apparently. Apparently in the Senate, a Senator CAN hold a piece of legislation without mentioning who they are. This sucks in my opinion and circumvents the entire intent Constitution. I can’t find much history on the anonymous hold, which is it’s real term.