Dept. Of Dysfunction: Senate Holds Are A Form Of Sabotage

Voting against proposed legislation–even to the extreme of trying to kill just about every legislative initiative coming from the other side of the aisle– is totally legitimate. It’s called politics, even if it is highly partisan politics. But preventing a White House from staffing out the government through the use of Senate “holds,” many of them tangential or petty, that’s called, um, sabotage. Or at least it should be.

Image by sneakerdog via Flickr

Annie Lowery, over at Foreign Policy, runs the numbers on vacant positions, and it ain’t pretty.

“But President Barack Obama’s first year has brought an unusual number of holds, and on unusually prominent positions. One year into the Bush administration, there were 70 appointees awaiting confirmation. One year into the Obama administration, there are 177. And dozens of those holds are directly affecting the agencies responsible for the United States’s; security and foreign policy, amid two wars and an amped-up terrorism threat. The United States has no ambassador to Ethiopia, no head of the Office of Legal Counsel, no director at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, no agricultural trade representative.

Indeed, the TSA spot wasn’t the only one left empty when it was most needed. For instance, during the worst of the Honduran constitutional crisis, in June, the United States had no assistant undersecretary for the Western Hemisphere — the position responsible for coordinating the response of the United Statess; policymakers for South America. Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, had slapped a hold on Georgetown University professor and longtime diplomat Arturo Valenzuela to protest the Obama administration’s relations with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and its response to Honduras. (Valenzuela finally won confirmation in November.)

The most absurd hold of 2009, perhaps, was on Miriam Sapiro, whom the Obama administration appointed to become a U.S. trade representative. Sen. Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, held up the respected Internet policy specialist’s nomination over — really — candy-flavored cigarettes. Big Tobacco, with Bunning on its side, wanted the Obama administration to lobby against Canada’s banning of flavored cigarettes like cloves, which are particularly popular among underage smokers. According to the New York Times, Bunning lifted the hold only when Democrats agreed to put a Republican, Michael Khouri, on the Federal Maritime Commission. (In the end, Bunning didn’t even attend the vote that confirmed Sapiro.)

Other holds have had only tangential relevance to the position in question. For instance, Southers isn’t on hold over concerns about his work performance, political leanings, or employment history. DeMint (one of Congress’s most avid holders, by reputation at least) is blocking Southers over concerns over unionization.“

via Help Wanted | Foreign Policy.

Stiffing a legislative agenda through the use of the filibuster and plain old party-line opposition is a legitimate political strategy for an opposition party (though if there is one good thing that could come of a Martha Coakley loss in Massachusetts, it would be that Senate Democrats would get serious about grappling with the gridlock imposed by the filibuster). But when key positions remain unfilled one year into an administration, that undermines the ability of the United States to do all sorts of business. It can cost lives. It can cost time. It can certainly cost dollars. And the most annoying consequence is that it helps feed the case that government is incompetent (which is cunningly being made by the very same people who refuse to staff the government).

As Lowery points out, holds are affecting our national security. So it would be nice if the Senate would add reform of the rules about holds to its list of remedial steps required to become a functioning legislative body (right below filibuster reform). But until it does (which will probably require a lot more scorn to be heaped upon Capitol Hill), we should at least force the “hold”-heads to defend themselves against the charge of sabotaging the United States of America. Perhaps a military commission should get involved?