Chuck Grassley: “the ethics bill has now been signed into law and, as my colleagues are aware, it contains new requirements about what we…”

“the ethics bill has now been signed into law and, as my colleagues are aware, it contains new requirements about what we in the Senate call holds, meaning an individual Senator can hold up a bill all by himself from coming up. Senators may be wondering what exactly is required under these new requirements about holds and how it is going to work. As a coauthor of the original measure, I have to tell my colleagues that I don't know how it is going to work. The provisions have been rewritten from what we had originally adopted on the floor of the Senate by a very wide margin. I am not even sure by whom this has been rewritten because it was a closed process and Republicans were not invited to participate in that process. Now I am trying to understand how these provisions will work. Let me give a little background. I have been working for some time, along with Senator Wyden of Oregon, to end the practice of secret holds through a rules change or through what we call in the Senate a standing order. I do not believe there is any legitimate reason a single Senator should be able to anonymously--I emphasize anonymously--block a bill or nomination. I do not argue with an individual Senator blocking a bill. I do that myself. But I do not think it should be secret.”