and smile and claim their innocence. It never occurred to me that that experience would actually prepare me to come to the United States Senate.
Countless nominations make their way to the floor. Senators make speeches about the importance of doing the country's business, appearing motivated to get the job done, to get the American people's work done. But when the cameras are off, they use the secret hold to bring this progress to a stop. Since I've been here, I've seen nominees and bipartisan legislation held up for weeks only to pass with 97 or 98 votes all to score political points and waste the American people's time and the American people's money.
Earlier this year, we spent months working to reform health care. We spent a lot of time under the Chairman's leadership trying to fix Wall Street. Madam President, it's past time we fixed the way Washington works as well. Congress must stop living under a glass dome.
The Wyden-Grassley amendment is simple. It requires any Senator seeking to hold up the nation's business to publicly announce his or her hold. All holds should be in writing, made public for the other 99 of us, and most important, for the American people, so they can render their own judgment.
And while I support this amendment, I have legislation that would go even further. My legislation would not only end secret holds as this one does, but also would require that any hold be bipartisan or else it expires after two legislative days. All holds-public or private-would expire in 30 days. At that point, the pending business would be ready to be considered on the Senate floor.
The Senate was designed to be the greatest deliberative body on the world, so let's have the debate and put an end to these secretive attempts to prevent debate. I once again want to thank Senators Wyden and Grassley for their leadership and look forward to the passage of this amendment. I also want to recognize the great work that our colleague from Missouri, Claire McCaskill has done bringing this legislation to this point. And, with that, Madam President, I yield the floor.
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