Richard Shelby Drops Blanket Holds, Says They Were A Success

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) has dropped all but a handful of the 70-plus holds he placed on President Obama's nominees last week. Shelby's office told TPMDC today that the goal of the blanket holds had succeeded three days after it was reported and roundly attacked by Democrats and the White House.

"The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House's attention was to get the White House's attention on two issues that are critical to our national security," Shelby spokesperson Jonathan Graffeo said in a statement, referring to two programs that would sent billions in taxpayer funds to Alabama. Shelby will continue his hold on several Air Force and Pentagon nominees.

Since the blanket hold was announced by aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid last week, Shelby's office has been tight-lipped about the controversy, refusing to respond to reporters questions about the holds or the reasons behind them. The holds lifted, Shelby's office finally began to detail them, rejecting Reid's claim that Shelby pushed a blanket hold in the first place. According to his office, Shelby's holds didn't include the uniformed military, federal judges or nominees to the Treasury Dept.

Last week, Reid's office told reporters the Shelby holds extended to "all executive nominations on the Senate calendar."

Moving forward, Graffeo said Shelby has placed holds on the following nominees: Terry Yonkers, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force; Frank Kendall, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics; and Erin Conaton, Under Secretary of the Air Force. Graffeo said the holds will continue until the Obama administration agrees to reexamine the air refueling tanker contract and improvised explosive device lab that led to Shelby's controversial wider holds.

Graffeo denied that the IED lab project and the refueling contracts were "earmarks," despite the fact that Shelby secured the funding for for the lab to be built in his home state back in 2008, according to CongressDaily (sub. req'd). The tanker contract would send billions in manufacturing funds to Mobile, AL where the planes are scheduled to be built by European manufacturer Airbus and American defense contractor Northrop Grumman. In a competing plan to build the planes from Boeing, manufacture would take place in Washington state and Kansas.

Read Graffeo's full statement to TPMDC here.