If a "hold" is not voluntarily released by a Senator, it can be "blasted" or overridden by the vote of 60 Senators on a vote on the floor of the Senate - but 60 votes are required, and they can be difficult to come by.

        The question is sometimes raised about how a Senator can get away with what is clearly leverage against the usual parliamentary procedure of both houses of Congress, and most state and local governments.  There are probably two practical reasons:

    1.  There is an outrageous level of self-appreciation and cow-towing to each other among Senators.  It is, of course, entirely absurd and narcissistic - but it does exist, and it has always existed in one form or another among small legislative bodies.  There is little more offensive among the various aspects of Senate culture than this sort of aristocratic snot.

      2.  Both Houses of the Congress handle many, many transactions every day which are "passed without objection" by a Member.  That means that unless a Member stands up and objects to a particular action, there is no need for a vote of members on the item.  Obviously a Senator could tie up the Senate for months by simply requiring full body votes on many items.  An example of a item "passed without objection" would be not reading a proposed bill which might have several hundred or thousand pages.  A Senator may threaten to require a vote on everything if his "hold" isn't respected.

Holds on Nominations and Confirmations and Archived Materials

      The day-to-day purpose of this page is to provide information we get about "holds" of United States Senators on Presidential nominations and confirmation.  Be cautious with this information because we have to work hard to get information about holds, and may well miss some of them.  We have little information about anonymous holds except we may know they have been applied.  We are also slow, sometimes, in finding out when a hold is removed.  (We are currently surveying nominations for holds, and should have reasonably good information posted in the next 30 days.  11-03-09)

The President Used the Senatorial "HOLD" Rule

President Obama - while a United States Senator from Illinois before his election - used the "hold" rules against appointments just as Senators are using the rule against his appointments today.  He has complained about what he considers the inappropriate delay in appointments during the last week - even though he used the same process in the Senate while there.  02-02-10

The legislative process to manage the Senator's issue about unions is to wait until Soothers takes a shot at establishing the unions and then try to stop it in the normal Senatorial business.  The Senator has repeatedly used the hold rule to block important nominations for some underlying reason.  He also has a history of using false statements, or twisting the facts for a political purpose.  Other senators of both parties use the hold rule on other nominations.  The alternative is for the Senate to change its rule back to voting on nominations and issues - not allowing individual Senators absolute dictatorial power over these matters.  10-09-10

Senator Bond of Missouri Enforcing "Hold" on GSA Nominee

Senator Kit Bond - a longtime hack politician from Missouri, is retiring and on the way out, dishing out another in a long history of the worst smell of Missouri county politics.  He is "holding" the nomination of Obama GSA nominee Martha Johnson for reasons lost in his mind somewhere.  This leaves the GSA - the Nation's largest purchasing and management agency, in the hands of a temporary fill-in leader.  Bond is known for taking illegal campaign contributions which he has had to cough up later in places as remote as Butte Montana. 01-29-10

When politics are tiresome and dangerous!  

We have seen the TSA - the Transportation Safety Administration - under serious challenge because of high risk mistakes in recent days.  Part of the reason is because of a Senator's muscle politics.  What has happened is that Senator James DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, has put a "Senatorial hold" on the nomination of Erroll Southers to head the TSA.  This has been going on for months, leaving the TSA without a leader.  The Senator has released the following statement on January 1 2010:

 "Erroll Southers has not been forthcoming about whether he'll give union bosses control of our airport security, which is one of the most important decisions he'll make as head of the TSA. Mr. Southers' unwillingness to form a position on collective bargaining seriously calls into question his judgment, because it weakens security and has already been rejected by the CIA, the FBI, the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, and by every previous TSA administrator."

01-03-10 Erroll G. Southers was nominated to head the Transportation Security Administration.  Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has placed a hold on the nomination.  His position is that Southers will unionize the TSA, DeMint opposes that.  Some facts about Souther's conduct in relation to private material for personal use is further complicating the nomination.

11-04-09 - Senators Bunning (R-KY), and DeMint, (R-SC) added "holds" today - for a variety of reasons related to Federal Reserve policy.

11-03-09 - Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont has placed a Senator's "Hold" on the nomination and confirmation of Ben Bernanke for his four year term as Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank.  The Senator is objecting to the power presently held by the Federal Reserve and is attempting to lever changes in the legal powers of the Fed.  This is a leverage hold, although the Senator objects to the nomination itself, too.

KNOWN CANCELED HOLDS BY UNITED STATES SENATORS

We are trying to get current information on recently dropped holds beginning 12-1-09.