Senate ‘holds’ serve no one

We hope the revelation that Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) had placed “holds” on some 70 of President Obama’s nominations will energize opposition to this outrageous practice by which one senator, sometimes out of personal pique, can block a vote on a nominee.

This week, Shelby said that he was withdrawing his holds on all but a few of the nominees because he had gotten the administration’s attention on two issues dear to his constituents: the acquisition by the Air Force of an aerial refueling tanker and the building of a new FBI facility for analyzing explosives. Both projects, he hopes, will bring jobs to his state.

Obama, understandably frustrated by the ability of individual senators to hold up his nominees for such parochial reasons, is considering a plan of his own that would get their attention: recess appointments, under which his nominees could serve without Senate confirmation through 2011. Such appointments, provided for in the Constitution only because of lengthy travel times in the 18th century, subvert the Senate’s advise-and-consent role in appointments. They may not violate the letter of the Constitution, but they flout its spirit.

But so does the practice of the hold, an informal arrangement in which a senator -- for any reason or none at all -- threatens to withhold the unanimous consent needed to bring legislation or a nomination to the floor. The Senate should abolish these informal vetoes. But doing so would require bipartisan support, something that will be hard to achieve because both parties have resorted to holds in the past. For example, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) delayed the confirmation of the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in 2005.

Holds, whether for a noble purpose or a parochial one, allow one member to usurp the roles of all the others. Senators from both parties must recognize that getting rid of them is a matter of self-preservation. Whatever else the “tea party” movement signifies, it is in part a reaction to the backroom deals and lack of transparency in Washington. Holds, like earmarks, filibusters and blatant logrolling, are emblematic of the capital’s insider culture that is now under siege. Republicans -- and Democrats -- who want to distance themselves from that culture should heed Obama’s call to rein in this abuse.