Hold (Senate)

A hold is an informal but powerful tool unique to the United States Senate. Because the Senate operates largely by unanimous consent, a single senator's objection can prevent the majority leader from bringing a bill or nomination to the floor without invoking a time-consuming cloture process. By notifying their party leader that they intend to object, a senator places a "hold" on the item.

Holds are not codified in the Senate's standing rules; they evolved as a courtesy practice in the mid-20th century, allowing senators to delay action so they could review legislation, negotiate amendments, or extract concessions from the administration or a committee. Over time the practice expanded into a routine instrument of leverage, particularly over executive and judicial nominations and over bills passed by unanimous consent.

Several variations exist in Senate practice:

• Silent or anonymous hold — historically placed without the senator being publicly identified. Section 512 of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 sought to curtail anonymity by requiring a senator to disclose a hold in the Congressional Record within a set number of session days after objecting on behalf of the leader.
• Rolling hold — a hold passed between multiple senators in succession to extend delay.
• Mae West hold — a request to "come up and see me" before the item moves, signaling a desire to negotiate rather than to kill the measure outright.

A hold can be overcome only if the majority leader is willing to spend floor time filing cloture, which under Rule XXII requires 60 votes for most legislation and a simple majority for nominations following the 2013 and 2017 changes to precedent. As a result, holds give individual senators outsized influence and are frequently used to win unrelated commitments, a dynamic critics argue contributes to Senate gridlock and to prolonged vacancies in federal agencies and courts.