The U.S. Senate is broken, and its rampant dysfunction is slowly hollowing out the other two branches of government. Conservative senators have waged an unprecedented campaign of obstruction against President Obama’s judicial nominees, leaving nearly one in nine federal judgeships vacant . Senators routinely hold uncontroversial nominees hostage to extract petty concessions — Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) once placed a blanket hold on more than 70 White House nominees in order to extort tens of billions of dollars in pork for his home state. In perhaps the most absurd example of Senate obstructionism, Shelby also single-handedly blocked a nominee to the Federal Reserve Board whom he deemed too unqualified to set economic policy, only to have that nominee win the Nobel Prize in Economics a few months later. Because it is now so easy to stall a nominee, potentially keeping an entire federal agency leaderless for years, powerful industry groups have spawned an entire industry devoted to keeping the government from functioning — and no one has mastered this game better than the National Rifle Association.

ENSURING A PERMANENT VACANCY: In 2006, the NRA successfully lobbied Congress to require the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to be confirmed by the Senate. Since then, the ATF has never had a Senate-confirmed head. President Bush nominated U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan to head the ATF, but even a Republican president’s choice proved unacceptable to pro-gun lobbyists. The NRA accused Sullivan of “overly zealous enforcement activities” because, while Sullivan served as Acting Director of ATF, the agency revoked several gun dealers licenses to sell firearms. Sens. David Vitter (R-LA), Larry Craig (R-ID) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) soon took up the NRA’s cause, placing a hold on Sullivan’s nomination until he agreed to comply with the NRA’s demands. President Obama did not nominate an ATF Director until Nov. 2010, in no small part because the administration “had a tough time even finding a candidate interested in the ATF job because of likely gun-lobby resistance.” When Obama finally did nominate Andrew Traver, a 23-year veteran of the ATF and the head of its Chicago office, the NRA officially announced its opposition the very same day. Many of the NRA’s objections to Traver call into question whether anyone actually interested in enforcing the nation’s gun laws could breach the NRA’s wall of obstruction. The gun lobby complains that Traver once was interviewed in a local news segment about a 14 year-old girl who was killed by an AK-47, and it objects to Traver’s belief that civilians should not be able to purchase guns that fire 5 inch long .50 caliber rounds that are capable of punching a fist-sized hole in 2.5 inches of bulletproof glass.

THE PRICE OF OBSTRUCTION: When entire agencies sit without confirmed leadership for years at a time it has very severe consequences for the government’s ability to provide the most basic services. The gun lobby may object to the ATF’s decision to control the most dangerous weapons or require gun dealers to follow the law, but when the NRA gums up this agency’s leadership it also hurts its ability to keep guns out of the hands of Mexican drug cartels or prevent arson and bombings. Agencies without a confirmed head also lack clout within an administration and thus have less ability to assert their need for additional budget appropriations. Accordingly, difficult budgeting decisions wind up being decided based on which agencies’ leaders are able to wield their influence with the Office of Management and Budget rather than on the nation’s actual needs. And leaderless agencies are understandably reluctant to pursue new regulations or other long-term initiatives for fear that they will not be embraced if a permanent leader is ever confirmed. Nor are the costs of Senate obstruction limited to the federal agencies. Because of the Senate’s inability to confirm judicial nominations, a federal court in Illinois currently has only one active judge doing the job of four, and the average civil litigant nationwide must wait nearly two years for a jury trial. And if the Senate isn’t fixed, the judiciary will soon become completely incapable of functioning. Nearly half of the 876 federal judgeships will be vacant by the end of the decade if the current confirmation rate does not speed up, according to the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy.

HOLDS FOR SALE : The gun lobby may be the most effective special interest group at ensuring that the agency that oversees its members is completely unable to function, but it is far from alone in exploiting the broken Senate. Indeed, as ThinkProgress’ Lee Fang recently reported, corporate lobbyists have created an entire holds-for-sale industry which connects powerful interest groups with senators willing to place a hold on Senate business which could hurt the interest group’s bottom line. One lobbying firm, Endgame Strategies LLC, openly advertises to potential clients that it can help its clients find just the right “backbench Senate Republicans” to “exercise their prerogatives to delay or obstruct.” And this firm is hardly a lone wolf. The American League of Lobbyists recently pitched a seminar to DC lobbyists with a provocative question and answer: “Can you turn Congressional rules and procedures into a tactical advantage for achieving your policy goals? Absolutely!” In other words, while the United States slowly loses its ability to function due to its broken Senate, corporate lobbyists are wildly profiting off that very dysfunction.