In The End, Secret Hold On Whistleblower Protection Narrowed Down To Two Senators
from the who-will-blow-the-final-whistle dept
Back in January, we noted the somewhat ironic fact that a US Senator had put a "secret hold" on a bill to protect government whistleblowers. We wondered if someone would blow the whistle and out that Senator. Thankfully, the folks from On the Media stepped up, and set up a project to find out who put that secret hold on the bill. Last we had checked in, they had narrowed it down to three possible Senators: Jon Kyl, Jeff Sessions and James Risch. Since then, Risch said he didn't put the hold on, leaving just Kyl and Sessions refusing to speak. Now that it's been narrowed down to just two, On the Media has decided to end the project, but is happy about the results. The campaign served to raise two key issues:The Government Accountability Project has let us know that this project has had the two-pronged effect in the Senate of making Senators more hesitant to use the secret hold, and bringing new attention to the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, which is expected to be reintroduced in the Senate shortly.This is good news. While there actually are some serious problems with the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act as it was written last time around, that's still no excuse for anyone to put a "secret" hold on it. If Senators are going to block a bill, they should be willing to at least come out and admit that it was them, let alone explain their reasons for doing so.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: jeff sessions, john kyl, protections, secret holds, senate, whistleblower
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Kudos to On the Media for making an effort to create that accountability despite the best efforts of our representatives.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Sad note: both Senators are Republican.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Those traitors need to be stopped LoL
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
error in logic
living in idaho i wouldn't
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This should happen for every secret hold. One website that collects this data should be up. I would suspect senators would start populating the list themselves.
Secret holds should be embarrassing. If a senator wants to place a hold he should be willing to own it and claim it.
Right now these last three hold outs (Risch got eliminated by logic not his words) should be held culpable for the hold and feel the pain of failing to come forth.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
the government needs to be able to propose and block legislation without fear that someone is going to trace the money back to a campaign contributor, or else it creates a climate of uncertainty in which business is unable to invest in new research for fear another company will come along and put out a better product of service. if xyz corp. has to compete in an unregulated market then the hard working men and women of xyz won't be able to feed their children and these same children will end up as teenage prostitutes. i find it very disturbing to discover techdirt supporting child pornography.
these men and women deserve to get paid for their efforts, and secret holds like this one, and secret treaties like acta are the only way to do that. it's all about stopping terrorism, mike, and frankly i am disgusted by the tone of this and other articles i have read here because it is obvious you just don't get that. they want to kill you, mike. that is all they want: to kill you because they hate your freedoms and good jobs and toyota highlanders. i am starting to think that the feds need to come in and shut techdirt down. freedom of speech has limits. when you put real men and women in harms way you should lose your right to spread fud and disinformation. maybe a probationary rights system, where you are only allowed to confirm official government actions and statements is the answer here. let me think about that and get back to you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I guess we know which camp you'r in...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why these two?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why isn't it used elsewhere?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Why isn't it used elsewhere?
It's pure cowardice on the part of the senator doing it, regardless of party affiliation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
surprise?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
From Senator Feinstein
"Be assured that I did not place a hold on S. 372. I believe that people who come forward to expose crime and corruption should be protected from retaliation. You may be interested to know, on January 27, 2011 the Senate also passed S.Res. 28, a new rule requiring any Senator objecting to proceeding to a bill or nomination to publicly disclose the objection within two days of the Senate being in session."
See: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.RES.28:
It appears that secret holds are no more.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: From Senator Feinstein
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: From Senator Feinstein
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: From Senator Feinstein
Gee, I wonder where AJ and "Anonymous" have been. Shouldn't they have been out accusing Senator Wyden of 'grandstanding' again.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]