How many votes to invoke cloture in the senate

Cloture was first used in , to end a filibuster against the Treaty of Versailles. Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion.

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Alternatively, the senator presiding over the chamber or the vice president, if he or she is performing that function could disregard the advice provided to him or her by the parliamentarian, undercutting the efficacy of the Byrd Rule. By winning majorities in both houses of Congress and the White House, Democrats have achieved one necessary condition for filibuster reform: unified party control of Washington. But the filibuster could still survive unified party control.

Senators often speak about their principled support for the filibuster. There would likely need to be a specific measure that majority party senators both agreed upon and cared enough about to make banning the filibuster worth it. In addition, individual senators may find the filibuster useful to their own personal power and policy goals, as it allows them to take measures hostage with the hopes of securing concessions.

For majority party leaders, meanwhile, the need to secure 60 votes to end debate helps them to shift blame to the minority party for inaction on issues that are popular with some, but not all, elements of their own party. Finally, senators may be concerned about the future; in an era of frequent shifts in control of the chamber, legislators may worry that a rule change now will put them at a disadvantage in the near future. Russell Wheeler explains the contemporary proposals to alter the size and structure of the Supreme Court.

Darrell West explains the different vote-by-mail systems and addresses fears over the political consequences of mail voting and potential for fraud. Should we believe him? Voter Vitals Non-partisan, fact-based explainers on important issues for American voters. Multimedia Videos and podcasts on key election issues. About Policy For Media. Stay Informed Sign up to get Policy updates in your inbox:.

Facebook Twitter Instagram. Voter Vitals. The Vitals. This report was written by [author name scrubbed], formerly a senior specialist in the Legislative Process at CRS. Congressional Record , daily edition, vol. See S. Topic Areas About Donate. Invoking Cloture in the Senate January 24, — April 6, Cloture is the only procedure by which the Senate can vote to set an end to a debate without also rejecting the bill, amendment, conference report, motion, or other matter it has been debating.

Download PDF. Download EPUB. Topic areas Legislative Process. Invoking Cloture in the Senate April 6, There are several stages to the process of invoking cloture.

First, at least 16 Senators sign a cloture motion also called a cloture petition that states: "We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate upon [the matter in question]. When the motion is presented, the clerk reads it. The cloture motion then lies over until the second calendar day on which the Senate is in session.

Senators usually use quorum calls to suspend the Senate's floor proceedings temporarily, perhaps to discuss a procedural or policy problem or to await the arrival of a certain Senator. In those cases, the clerk calls the roll very slowly and, before the call of the roll is completed, the Senate agrees by unanimous consent to call off the quorum call to "dispense with further proceedings under the quorum call".

Because the absence of a quorum has not actually been demonstrated, the Senate can resume its business. Such quorum calls can be time-consuming and so can serve the interests of filibustering Senators.

During a filibuster, however, the clerk may be directed by the leadership to call the roll more rapidly, as if a roll call vote were in progress. Doing so reduces the time the quorum call consumes, but it also creates the real possibility that the quorum call may demonstrate that a quorum in fact is not present.

In that case, the Senate has only two options: to adjourn or to take steps necessary to secure the presence of enough absent Senators to create a quorum. Typically, the majority leader or the majority floor manager opts for the latter course and makes a motion that the Sergeant at Arms secure the attendance of absent Senators, then asks for a roll call vote on that motion. Senators who did not respond to the quorum call are likely to come to the floor for the roll call vote on this motion.

Almost always, therefore, the vote establishes that a quorum is present, so the Senate can resume its business without the Sergeant at Arms actually having to execute the Senate's directive. This process also can be time-consuming because of the time required to conduct the roll call vote just discussed.

Nonetheless, the proponents of the bill or other matter being filibustered may prefer that the roll be called quickly because it requires unanimous consent to call off a routine quorum call, in which the clerk calls the roll very slowly, before it is completed. A filibustering Senator has only to suggest the absence of a quorum and then object to calling off the quorum call in order to provoke a motion to secure the attendance of absentees and with the support of at least 10 other Senators a roll call vote on that motion.

If this motion is likely to be necessary, one way or the other, it is usually in the interests of the bill's proponents to have the motion made and agreed to as soon as possible. When Senators suggest the absence of a quorum, however, they lose the floor. Also, "[i]t is not in order for a Senator to demand a quorum call if no business has intervened since the last call; business must intervene before a second quorum call or between calls if the question is raised or a point of order made.

As the preceding discussion indicates, roll call votes are another source of delay. Any question put to the Senate for its decision requires a vote, and a minimum of 11 Senators can require that it be a roll call vote. Each such vote consumes at least 15 minutes unless the Senate agrees in advance to reduce the time for voting. The Constitution provides that the "yeas and nays" shall be ordered "at the desire of one-fifth of those present" Article I, Section 5.

Because a quorum is presumed to be present, the Senate requires at least 11 Senators one-fifth of the minimal quorum of 51 to request a roll call vote on the pending question. When a Senator wants a roll call vote, other Senators frequently support the request as a courtesy to a colleague. During a filibuster, however, the supporters of the bill or amendment sometimes try to discourage other Senators from supporting requests for time-consuming roll call votes.

Also, the proponents sometimes can make it more difficult for their opponents to secure a roll call vote. When the request for a roll call vote is made immediately after a quorum call or another roll call vote, Senators can insist that the request be supported by one-fifth of however many Senators answered that call or cast their votes. The time allowed for Senators to cast roll call votes is a minimum of 15 minutes, unless the Senate agrees, before the vote begins, to a reduced time.

When the 15 minutes expire, the vote usually is left open for some additional time to accommodate other Senators who are thought to be en route to the floor to vote. Thus, the actual time for a roll call vote can extend to 20 minutes or more. During filibusters, however, a call for the regular order can lead the presiding officer to announce the result of a roll call vote soon after the 15 minutes allotted for it.

The leadership typically attempts to arrange the daily schedule of the Senate so that filibusters are not unduly disruptive or inconvenient to Senators. One way to make conducting a filibuster more costly and difficult is to keep the Senate in session until late at night, or even all night, requiring the participating Senators to speak or otherwise consume the Senate's time.

During some contentious filibusters, cots have even been brought into the Senate's anterooms for Senators to use during around-the-clock sessions. Today, all-night sessions are very unusual.

The Senate may not even convene earlier or remain in session later when a filibuster is in progress than it does on other days. One reason may be that filibusters are not the extraordinary and unusual occurrences they once were.

Another may be that Senators are less willing to endure the inconvenience and discomfort of prolonged sessions. Also, leadership may react to a threat of a filibuster by keeping the measure or matter from the floor, at least for a while. The point about longer, later sessions is important because late-night or all-night sessions put as much or more of a burden on the proponents of the question being debated than on its opponents.

The Senators participating in the filibuster need only ensure that at least one of their number always is present on the floor to speak. The proponents of the question, however, need to ensure that a majority of the Senate is present or at least available to respond to a quorum call or roll call vote. If, late in the evening or in the middle of the night, a Senator suggests the absence of a quorum and a quorum does not appear, the Senate must adjourn or at least suspend its proceedings until a quorum is established.

This works to the advantage of the filibustering Senators, so the burden rests on their opponents to ensure that the constitutional quorum requirement always can be met. The procedures for invoking cloture are governed by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Rule XXII which also govern procedure under cloture, as discussed later in this report.

The following discussion mostly addresses procedure stemming from paragraph 2, including reinterpretation of its application to nominations. The process begins when a Senator presents a cloture motion that is signed by 16 Senators, proposing "to bring to a close the debate upon" the pending question.

The motion is presented to the Senate while it is in session and must be presented while the question on which cloture is sought is pending. For example, it is not in order for a Senator to present a motion to invoke cloture on a bill the Senate has not yet agreed to consider or on an amendment that has not yet been offered. A Senator does not need to be recognized by the chair to present a cloture petition.

The Senator who has the floor may be interrupted for the purpose but retains the floor thereafter and may continue speaking. The motion is read to the Senate, but the Senate then returns to whatever business it had been transacting.

In almost all cases, the Senate does not act on the cloture motion in any way on the day on which it is submitted or on the following day. Instead, the next action on the motion occurs "on the following calendar day but one"—that is, on the second day of session after it is presented. During the intervening time, the Senate does not have to continue debating the question on which cloture has been proposed but can turn to other business.

One hour after the Senate convenes on the day the cloture motion has ripened or matured , the presiding officer interrupts the proceedings of the Senate, regardless of what is under consideration at the time, and presents the cloture motion to the Senate for a vote. At this point the presiding officer is required to direct that an actual or live quorum call take place.

The Senate often waives this quorum call by unanimous consent. When the presence of a quorum is established, the Senate proceeds, without debate, to vote on the cloture motion: "the Presiding Officer shall, without debate, submit to the Senate by a yea-and-nay vote the question: 'Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close?

Invoking cloture usually requires a three-fifths vote of the entire Senate—"three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn. In the case of a cloture vote, the key is the number of Senators voting for cloture, not the number voting against.

Failing to vote on a cloture motion has the same effect as voting against the motion: it deprives the motion of one of the 60 votes needed to agree to it.

There are two important exceptions to the three-fifths requirement to invoke cloture. First, under Rule XXII, an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Senators present and voting is required to invoke cloture on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules. This provision has its origin in the history of the cloture rule. Before , two-thirds of the Senators present and voting a quorum being present was required for cloture on all matters.

In early , at the beginning of the 94 th Congress, Senators sought to amend the rule to make it somewhat easier to invoke cloture. However, some Senators feared that if this effort succeeded, that would only make it easier to amend the rule again, making cloture still easier to invoke. As a compromise, the Senate agreed to move from two-thirds of the Senators present and voting a maximum of 67 votes to three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn normally, and at a maximum, 60 votes on all matters except future rules changes, including changes in the cloture rule itself.

If the Senate does vote to invoke cloture, that vote may not be reconsidered. On the other hand, it is in order to reconsider the vote by which the Senate voted against invoking cloture.

In current practice, supporters of cloture sometimes enter a motion to reconsider a vote against cloture, so that a second vote on cloture can later occur without a second petition being filed. They can arrange for the second vote to take place at any point, as long as the Senate then agrees, first, to the motion to proceed to the motion to reconsider, and then to the motion to reconsider itself. Both motions are non-debatable under these circumstances and require only a simple majority vote.

If the Senate agrees to the motion to reconsider, the new vote on the cloture motion then occurs immediately, and cloture is invoked if three-fifths of the full Senate or other majority, as appropriate now votes for it. The Senate sometimes agrees by unanimous consent to alter the way in which various requirements of the cloture rule apply to consideration of a specified matter.

In particular, Senators by unanimous consent sometimes permit a cloture motion to be filed on a matter that is not then pending. Also, as mentioned, the required quorum call preceding a cloture vote is often waived by consent. In addition, the Senate may give unanimous consent to adjust the time when the cloture vote will take place. On some occasions, the Senate has even agreed, by unanimous consent, to vote on cloture at a specified time even though no cloture motion is formally filed.

Any debatable question the Senate considers can be filibustered and, therefore, may be the subject of a cloture motion, unless the time for debate is limited by the Senate's rules, by law, or by a unanimous consent agreement. Consequently, Senators may present cloture motions to end debate on bills, resolutions, amendments, conference reports, motions to concur in or amend amendments of the House, executive business nominations and treaties , and various other debatable motions.

In relation to the Senate's initial consideration of a bill or resolution, there usually can be at least two filibusters under the Senate's standing rules: first, a filibuster on the motion to proceed to the measure's consideration; 19 and second, after the Senate agrees to this motion, a filibuster on the measure itself.

If the Senate cannot agree to take up a measure by unanimous consent, the majority leader's recourse is to make a motion that the Senate proceed to its consideration. This motion to proceed , as it is called, usually is debatable and, consequently, subject to a filibuster. Once the Senate adopts the motion to proceed and begins consideration of the measure itself, a filibuster on the measure then may begin, so that cloture must be sought anew on the measure itself.

Except by unanimous consent, cloture cannot be sought on the measure during consideration of the motion to proceed, because cloture may be moved only on a question that is pending before the Senate. Threatened filibusters on motions to proceed once were rare but have become more common in recent years. In such situations, it has become common for the majority leader to move to proceed to consider the measure, immediately submit a motion for cloture on his motion to proceed, and then immediately withdraw the motion to proceed.

This proceeding permits the Senate to consider other business while the petition ripens rather than having to entertain extended debate on the motion to proceed. On the second following day, if the Senate defeats the motion for cloture, it continues with other business; if cloture is invoked, the action automatically brings back the motion to proceed as the pending business but under the restrictions of cloture.

Sometimes an amendment provokes a filibuster even though the underlying bill does not. If cloture is invoked on the amendment, the operation of cloture is exhausted once the amendment is disposed of. Thereafter, debate on the bill continues, but under the general rules of the Senate. On occasion, cloture has been invoked, in this way, separately on several amendments to a bill in succession.

Alternatively, cloture may be invoked on the bill itself, so that debate on the amendment continues under the restrictions of cloture on the overall measure.

If the amendment is not germane to the bill, however, its supporters will oppose this approach, for as discussed later the cloture rule requires that amendments considered under cloture be germane. If cloture is invoked on a bill while a non-germane amendment is pending, the amendment becomes out of order and may not be further considered. In such a case it may be necessary instead to invoke cloture on the amendment to secure a final vote on it and then, after the amendment is disposed of, move for cloture on the bill as well.

After the Senate has passed a measure, additional action may be necessary so the Senate may go to conference with the House on the legislation. The motions necessary for this purpose are debatable, and as a result, supporters of the measure have occasionally found it necessary to move for cloture thereon.

Inasmuch as conference reports themselves are debatable, however, it may be necessary to move for cloture on a conference report. Occasionally, cloture has also been sought on other debatable questions, such as: motions to waive the Budget Act, overriding a presidential veto, or motions to recommit a measure with instructions that it be reported back forthwith with an amendment.

The relation of cloture motions to filibusters may depend on when the cloture motions are filed. Prior to the s, consideration of a matter was usually allowed to proceed for some days or even weeks before cloture was sought or cloture might not be sought at all.

In more recent decades, it has become common to seek cloture on a matter much earlier in the course of consideration, even immediately after consideration has begun. In some cases, a cloture motion has been filed, or has been deemed to have been filed, even before the matter in question has been called up.

Because the rules permit filing a motion for cloture only on a pending question, either of these actions, of course, requires unanimous consent. When cloture is sought before any dilatory action actually occurs, the action may be an indication that the threat of a filibuster is present, or at least is thought to be present.

There often has been more than one cloture vote on the same question. If and when the Senate rejects a cloture motion, a Senator then can file a second motion to invoke cloture on that question. In some cases, Senators anticipate that a cloture motion may fail and file a second motion before the Senate has voted on the first one. For example, one cloture motion may be presented on Monday and another on Tuesday. If the Senate rejects the first motion when it matures on Wednesday, the second motion will ripen for a vote on Thursday.

If the Senate agrees to the first motion, of course, there is no need for it to act on the second. There have been instances in which there have been even more cloture votes on the same question.

During the th Congress , for example, there were eight cloture votes, all unsuccessful, on a campaign finance bill. It also may be necessary for the Senate to attempt cloture on several different questions to complete consideration of a single measure.

The possibility of having to obtain cloture first on a motion to proceed to consider a measure and subsequently also on the measure itself has already been discussed.

Cloture on multiple questions may also be required when the Senate considers a bill with a pending amendment in the nature of a substitute. As already mentioned, once cloture has been invoked on a question, Rule XXII requires amendments to that question to be germane.

As with other amendments, accordingly, if a pending amendment in the nature of a substitute contains provisions non-germane to the underlying bill, and the Senate proceeds to invoke cloture on the bill, further consideration of the substitute is rendered out of order.

In such a case, bringing action to a conclusion may require obtaining cloture first on the substitute and then, once the substitute has been adopted, also on the underlying bill. In current practice, it is not unusual for the majority leader to move for cloture on the underlying bill immediately after filing cloture on the amendment in the nature of a substitute.

Under these circumstances, the two-day layover required for each cloture motion is being fulfilled simultaneously for both.