Wnited States Senate WASHINGTON, DC 20510 April 22, 2010 ‘The Honorable Harry Reid ‘The Honorable Mitch McConnell Majority Leader Minority Leader United States Senate United States Senate S-221, the Capitol S-230, the Capitol Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Leader Reid and Leader McConnell, We the undersigned Senators hereby pledge that we will not place secret holds on legislation or nominations We further call upon you to bring an end to the practice of permitting secret “holds” on legislation and nominations for those Senators who are unprepared to make the same pledge. While we deeply respect and appreciate the importance of tradition in this institution, we believe the practice of the secret hold has no rightful place in the Senate or in an open and transparent democracy. When a member of the Senate wishes to hold legislation or a nomination, that Senator owes to this body and, more importantly, to the American public a full explanation. Phe Senate endorsed this principle in Section 512 of S.1, passed by a vote of 96-2 on January 18, 2007. As you know, S.1 has failed in practice to end the use of secret holds. We, therefore, urge you to promptly consider further changes to the Senate rules in order to bring a clear and definitive end to secret holds o» legislation or a nomination, We stand ready to work with you on such a rule change, as long advocated for by Senators Wyden and Grassley, the leaders of a decade-long effort to eliminate secret holds in the Senate. We applaud their work and believe it must now be ‘pursued to its conclusion, Again, in making this request, we pledge that we will not place secret holds on legislation or a nomination, Sincerely, LAURE LAM United States Senator United States Senator Se DON WHITEHOUSE nited States Senator