Chuck Grassley: “what we are proposing in the Wyden- Grassley amendment is not going to hurt anybody. Senator Wyden and I experimented…”

“what we are proposing in the Wyden- Grassley amendment is not going to hurt anybody. Senator Wyden and I experimented with this so the other 98 Members of the Senate would not have to be hurt if it didn't work. Well over a year ago, we voluntarily, on our own, without any instigation from the rules or anything or anybody else, we publicly stated that we were going to follow the practice of our amendment, even though we didn't have to, and when we put a hold on a bill or a nomination, we would put it in the Congressional Record. We did that. I can speak for myself and say that there are no bruises, there is no harm, there is no retaliation. Nothing happened as a result of the whole world knowing why Senator Grassley or Senator Wyden were holding up a particular action. I think that ought to tell everybody else that they can likewise do whatever they need to do in the Senate to adequately represent the interests of their constituents through the use of a hold and freely tell everybody, and the end result can still be accomplished without anybody being hurt as a result of it. I hope that we will now institutionalize what I have found to be a very effective way of doing the job of U.S. Senator and, yet, at the same time, being open and aboveboard about it. This amendment requires simply disclosure by Senators of the holds that they place on legislation.”