Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, it is unfortunate that we have to be on the Senate floor this afternoon to talk about so many of the nominees we need to do the work of this country who are being held up, and being held up by people who are not willing to identify themselves or say what their issue is with these nominees.

I am pleased to join my colleagues. I am glad we are mounting this effort. We need to get rid of the secret holds. But it is unfortunate that we are where we are.

I understand why people are frustrated with what is happening here. People want to see things get done. They understand we have significant challenges facing the country, and they want to see action on those challenges.

It is clear that one of the areas where there is a problem is with the 80 or so people who were nominated who have been held up, some of them for months and months, because somebody has an issue, not with the person who is being held up usually, but as my colleague from Missouri said because someone wants to get the attention of a department or agency within government or because somebody wants to keep the Obama administration from doing the work of the people.

I wish to point out some of the people who have been on hold. No one has identified themselves as to why they had these people on hold. Until just a few minutes ago, we had five U.S. attorneys and five marshals. We have the Deputy Director of National Drug Policy Control. They come from States all across this country--from New York, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, Maine, Idaho, and Florida. We have a lot of big States there, a lot of States where the people's business is not getting done because those nominees have not been put in place.

The sad thing is, the people who have these folks on hold are trying to get back at somebody in government, but the people who are suffering are the constituents in those States where the work is not getting done.

I have a very personal example that I have talked about before on the floor of the Senate. A woman from New Hampshire who has now been confirmed to lead the Office of Violence Against Women, Judge Susan Carbon. This is someone who was appointed first by Senator JUDD GREGG to be a judge, and I then made her a full-time judge. She got through the committee on a unanimous vote.

I think all of us would like to see the work of the Office of Violence Against Women done, just as we want to see the work of the U.S. attorneys done and the work of the marshals done. Yet she was held up for 2 months, until I came to the floor and started asking questions about who had that secret hold on her. We never did find out. We never did find out why she was on hold or what the concern was. That is the problem with all these different holds.

Senator Bennet said he hasn't put any secret holds on anyone. Well, neither have I. If I am going to put a hold on somebody, I want the world to know about it because it is somebody whom I have a serious issue with or someone we have concerns about the job they would do. That is not the case with any of these folks.

So I would urge all my colleagues to sign on to say that they will oppose secret holds and to release those holds on the nominees who are being held up and let's let the work of the people in this country get done.

I yield the floor.

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