So it's a little dated (mid-August), but I was morbidly amused at this article and headline from Federaltimes.com: "Transparency bill subjected to secrecy." Yes, the Congressional tribute to unaccountability, the legislative "hold," a legislative method whereby a member of Congress can anonymously and secretly delay and/or kill the consideration of a bill, has been deployed again to the detriment of all who are curious about what Congress is doing. This time, it was used to delay the consideration of legislation designed to "create a public, searchable Web site of all federal grants and contracts."
I've been bothered by the "hold" since I first heard of it in the mid 1990s, have written about it, and am doing some research in this area now. I don't think that it requires much deep thought to identify the many anti-democratic issues associated with this practice. So I'll just try to document its use here, and raise awareness of the practice as I come across reports of its use. Happy reading!