Why so much shit is backlogged:

[Are_grits_groceries]

Secret Senate Holds

“Holds” are an informal senatorial custom unrecognized in Senate rules or
precedents. They allow Senators to give notice to their respective party leader that
certain measures or matters should not be brought up on the floor. Implicit in the
practice is that a Senator will object to taking up a bill or nomination on which he or
she has placed a hold. The Senate’s majority leader, who exercises primary
responsibility for determining the chamber’s agenda, traditionally in consultation
with the minority leader, is the final arbiter as to whether and for how long he will
honor a hold placed by a Member or group of lawmakers.

The origin of holds has been lost in the mists of history. Their ostensible
purpose is to provide advance notice to Senators as to when a measure or matter, in
which they have expressed an interest by placing holds, is slated to be called up by
the majority leader. However, since the 1970s, holds came into greater prominence
in the Senate as more Members began to employ holds as a way to try to accomplish
their policy or political objectives.

In a Senate with a large and complex workload, and more dependent than ever
on unanimous consent agreements to process its expanding business, holds provide
significant leverage to Members who wish to delay action on legislation or
nominations. Given the heightened potency of holds, there have been many
initiatives over the years to reform the Senate’s hold practices.

Read the rest at this site:http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL31685_20071220.pdf

<snip>
No one has clean hands here. Slow-walking nominations is a bipartisan sport. Democrats also pulled this stunt -- often as a gambit to dislodge documents that they believed the Bush administration was improperly withholding. The Obama administration's quick start on making nominations has slowed to a trickle, lessening the pressure on the Senate to deal with the backlog. And, ultimately, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has the power to force a vote on a pending nomination -- if he wants to take the time to do it.

Nonetheless, that's no excuse for letting advise and consent degenerate into sit around and wait. Until Tuesday, when Tom Perez was confirmed as assistant attorney general for civil rights -- more than six months after being nominated -- five of 11 assistant attorney general positions were unfilled.

here are a few:
-- Louisiana Republican David Vitter has a hold on Paul Anastas to be an assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency until the EPA agrees to delay issuing regulations on formaldehyde, which has been classified as a probable human carcinogen. The irony of Vitter's hold is that one of the biggest potential problems with the chemical involves Hurricane Katrina survivors exposed to formaldehyde in FEMA trailers

-- Meanwhile, Ohio Republican George Voinovich is holding up the nominee for EPA's deputy administrator, Robert Perciasepe, because Voinovich believes the EPA is underestimating the cost to households of climate change legislation. In a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Voinovich acknowledged that his hold is not "a reflection on Mr. Perciasepe's ability to perform in the role of the deputy administrator."

-- South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint is blocking confirmation of Arturo Valenzuela to be assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere because Valenzuela had the temerity to call the military coup ousting Honduran President Manuel Zelaya a "classic military coup."

-- Eight Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, warned Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that "we will not consent" to Senate floor action on nearly a dozen nominations -- including the U.S. surgeon general -- until the department rescinds what they termed a "gag order" on health insurers.

-- Missouri Republican Kit Bond is holding up confirmation of Martha Johnson, the nominee to head the General Services Administration, because the agency has been balking at constructing a $175 million federal building for Kansas City. Johnson's nomination has been languishing on the Senate floor since June.

-- Some nominations can't even get out of committee, with the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee a particular black hole. Two nominees for the National Labor Relations Board have been mired there since April. Patricia Smith, the nominee for solicitor of labor, is about to get a committee vote after having been stuck there since March.

Jackie Berrien was nominated in July to chair the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but Republicans have refused to act on her nomination until a pick for a Republican vacancy is named. Commissioner Christine Griffin has been confirmed to be deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management but can't leave to take that spot because the EEOC would be left without a quorum.

Being in the minority isn't fun. Gumming up the works with holds is one of the few ways to get attention -- and action. But it's no way to run a government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/06/AR2009100602836.html?hpid=opinionsbox1&sid=ST2009100603081

Google 'secret Senate holds' and you will see a lot more. Coburn held up a boatload of conservation and parks bills until Reid put them into one bill and rammed it down their throats.

Dems use this too, but the Rethugs are seriously impeding the administration from getting a lot of holes filled.

That's why we don't have a Surgeon General.