PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: It’s another secret Senate hold — these guys just won’t give up:
Another Democratic senator appears to have placed a “secret hold” on legislation that would pry open the murky world of federal contracting to public scrutiny.
That’s the word that Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn received Tuesday from the Republican cloakroom, the place that tracks who is blocking legislation using the parliamentary maneuver.
The news came soon after Coburn learned that Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, had finally lifted his hold on the measure that Coburn and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., introduced in April. The measure would create a searchable database of some $2.5 trillion in federal contracts, grants, loans, insurance and federal assistance each year.
Stevens and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West. Va., both indisputable masters at bringing home the bacon, placed the holds during the August recess. Both lifted them after prominent bloggers began calling senate offices to “smoke out” the senator responsible for holding up the open government bill.
If a Democrat does have a hold then they may have misled the blogger community which ruled out every Democrat except for Byrd last week. Every Democrat is on the record publicly denying that they have a hold on S. 2590. http://porkbusters.org/secrethold.php
If it turns out that a new hold has been placed, that senator might be in hot water with his/her party. That’s because leaders from both parties are urging passage of the bill in a particularly tight election season.
Mark Tapscott thinks the porkers are trying to outlast us:
Looks to me like opponents of Coburn-Obama have decided to see how long the measure’s supporters in the Blogosphere can keep up the campaign of unmasking anonymous holders. There are more than 75 senators who are not co-sponsors of the bill.
If even a dozen or 15 of them agree to place successive anonymous holds after each new holder is unmasked – assuming they are – they could easily exhaust the legislative calendar and perhaps also the Blogosphere, thus effectively blocking consideration of the bill.
And don’t think there aren’t at least that many senators from both parties who would be more than happy to play a role in such a scenario.
Bill Frist has promised to move the bill in September. Will he let these kinds of shenanigans cause him to dishonor his promise?
UPDATE: Frist responds: “My Democrat colleagues have not yet cleared this legislation … but I’m confident that they will do so promptly or pay the consequences of continued obstruction. Now is the time to act on S. 2590. And we will act this September to pass this bill and bring the bright light of public scrutiny to the federal budget.”
And an email from his staff reads: “Senator Frist will not dishonor his promise.”
MORE: I’m told that Senator Stevens has re-activated his hold on the bill.
Apparently, we’re back to having two holds on the bill. [Bumped to top because it’s important.]
MORE STILL: I think we should start pressuring Congress to go forward with the bill and override any holds.
Meanwhile, G.M. Roper thinks Congress needs an overhaul. It’s hard to argue.