Senate hold
A Secret hold is a parliamentary procedure within the Standing Rules of the Senate within the United States Senate which allow one or more Senators to anonymously prevent a motion from reaching a vote on the Senate floor.
Origin
Sections 2 and 3 of Rule VII(Morning Business) of the Standing Rules of the Senate outline the procedure for bringing motions to the floor of the Senate. Under these rules, "no motion to proceed to the consideration of any bill...shall be entertained...unless by unanimous consent". In practice, this means that a Senator may privately provide notice to their party leadership of their intent to object to a motion. At that point, the motion can not proceed, because unanimous consent has not been reached, even though the Senator has not publicly announced their intent to object. This allows a Senator to remain anonymous while preventing the motion to go forward.
Controversy
In August 2006, the Obama-Coburn Accountability Bill was put on secret hold. This bill, intended to encourage transparency within government, was considered by political pundits to be an especially ironic target of a secret hold, and much attention was drawn to the bill and to the procedure itself.[1][2] Bloggers and political activists sought to identify the Senator responsible by process of elimination, by having constituents contact each Senator and requesting a specific on-the-record denial of placing the secret hold. Within 24 hours, 96 Senators had explicitly denied that they had placed the secret hold, leaving only 4 Senators still suspected and under growing public scrutiny as a result.[3]
Attempts to Amend This Rule
Throughout the history of the Senate, multiple unsuccessful attempts have been made to abolish or amend this rule to specifically prevent secret holds. [4][5]