Once again the power of a crowd of gumshoes is poised to trump the prerogative of a single, skulking U.S. senator to stop the people's business with a "secret hold."

A collective project of open-government advocates (including journalists) are putting their information together to out the anonymous senator who killed a whistleblower protection bill in the final hours of the last Congress.

You can help this project by calling your senators — and others if you want — and asking whether they were the one that killed the bill (S 372). Record your findings or track progress in tracking the Shy Senator to his/her lair here. [2]

The bill, a watered-down version of one earlier passed by the Senate, had passed the House December 22, 2010, without objection. But a single anonymous objection kept it from being passed by the Senate in the final hours before adjournment.

• "Blow the Whistle," [2] On the Media, WNYC, January 12, 2011.
• "Help Identify the Senator Who Placed a Secret Hold on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act," [3] POGO Blog, January 10, 2011, by Bryan Rahija.
• "How a Red Herring About Wikileaks Killed Whistleblower Protections," [4] POGO Blog, January 7, 2011, by Angela Canterbury.
• "Bill To Protect Whistleblowers Fails in Senate," [5] Washington Post, December 23, 2010, by R. Jeffrey Smith.
• "What the Secret Hold Killed," [6] Government Accountability Project.