ZSE controller voiced concern regarding flight service refusal to issue a 'hold for release' clearan...

Narrative:

I had flight service call for a clearance request off of sun river (S21); a non-towered field. Due to IFR traffic departing in the area; I issued a hold for release clearance. The FSS employee replied that she did not give hold for release clearances because she was uncomfortable with them. This is not the first time I've had flight service balk at issuing one of these. While in this specific instance it did not add an undue burden to my workload; I can easy picture situations where it would. Hold for release clearances are given because of anticipated conflict and because the controller assumes that they don't have time to issue the clearance later. If workload is high enough for those considerations to come into play and a decision was made to issue a hold for release; flight service forcing the controller to issue it later; and the plane to wait; is unsafe and poor practice. Moreover; it's ridiculous for an employee to pick and choose which clearances they'll accept from ATC. Flight service's job is not to interpret the validity of what is issued to them. It's just plain lazy. This isn't the only flight service employee to refuse a hold for release clearance; it appears that this is a systemic problem. Training on how hold for releases work and how they are issued should be improved for flight service.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZSE Controller voiced concern regarding Flight Service refusal to issue a 'Hold for Release' clearance to an aircraft departing a non-towered airport.

Narrative: I had Flight Service call for a clearance request off of Sun River (S21); a non-towered field. Due to IFR traffic departing in the area; I issued a hold for release clearance. The FSS employee replied that she did not give hold for release clearances because she was uncomfortable with them. This is not the first time I've had Flight Service balk at issuing one of these. While in this specific instance it did not add an undue burden to my workload; I can easy picture situations where it would. Hold for release clearances are given because of anticipated conflict and because the Controller assumes that they don't have time to issue the clearance later. If workload is high enough for those considerations to come into play and a decision was made to issue a hold for release; Flight Service forcing the Controller to issue it later; and the plane to wait; is unsafe and poor practice. Moreover; it's ridiculous for an employee to pick and choose which clearances they'll accept from ATC. Flight Service's job is not to interpret the validity of what is issued to them. It's just plain lazy. This isn't the only Flight Service employee to refuse a hold for release clearance; it appears that this is a systemic problem. Training on how hold for releases work and how they are issued should be improved for Flight Service.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1117857
Time
Date	201309
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZSE.ARTCC
State Reference	WA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Developmental
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

ZSE controller voiced concern regarding flight service refusal to issue a 'hold for release' clearance to an aircraft departing a non-towered airport.