Making Law: The Senate

Chapter 12 Section 4

Key Terms

• Filibuster• Cloture• Veto• Pocket veto

The Senate Floor

• Chief difference between house and Senate is consideration of measures on the floor

• Measure– Introduced by a Senator– Read twice– Sent to a standing

committee

Senate Floor

• Proceedings are less formal

• Rules less strict• Senate has only one

calendar for bills• Bills called to the floor

by the majority leader

Rules for Debate

• Unrestrained in the Senate

• Called the greatest deliberative body in the world

• Usually can speak for as long as they want

• Can talk about anything they want

Rules of Debate

• Most bills in the senate come to the floor with unanimous consent agreement

• Majority leader negotiates these agreements with the minority leader

• This agreement usually limits floor debate

Rules for Debate

• Has a two speech rule– May only speak twice on

a given issue in a day

• By recessing and not adjourning they extend the day

• Freedom of debate is to encourage fullest possible discussion o floor matters

The Filibuster

• Filibuster- is an attempt to talk a bill to death, stalling tactic used by a minority Senator

• Used to monopolize the Senate floor to either have a bill dropped or change it

• Talk and more talk is the filibusters weapon

The Filibuster

• Can also use quorum calls, and other parliamentary procedures to delay

• Senator Hughie Long talked for 15 hours in 1935 reading the Washington phone book

The Filibuster

• Strom Thurmond holds the record at 24 hours 18 minutes in a one-person-effort to stop civil rights legislation in 1957

• Most filibusters are team efforts

• Over 300 measures have been killed by filibuster

Filibuster

• Senate tries to beat off filibusters by holding day and night sessions

• Enforce rules– Must stand– Not sit or lean on desk– Not walk about– These countermeasures

rarely work

The Cloture Rule

• Senate’s real check on filibuster

• Cloture rule XXII– Adopted 1917 filibuster

had lasted three weeks– Dealt with arming

civilian vessels– Passed the House 403-

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The Cloture Rule

• Rule is not used often• Brought in play by special

procedure• Vote taken two days after

petition• If 3/5ths or 60 Senators

vote for it• If successful no more than

90 hours of floor time can be used for the measure

The Cloture Rule

• 700 attempts• Only 1/3 have been

successful• Many Senators do not

vote for cloture because– They honor the tradition

of free debate– Worry that frequent use

will undercut its value

Situation Today

• Filibusters more common in recent years

• Party control of the upper house has been narrow

• Minority party has made frequent use of the filibuster

• 60 votes are needed to pass a bill same as cloture

• Minimum number to pass an important bill

Conference Committees

• Bill must survive a number of challenges

• If it makes it through committee it must survive a vote in both houses

• Must be passed in identical form

• If houses pass different versions

Conference Committees

• When one house will not accept the others bill is sent to conference committee

• Conference managers named by respective presiding officers

• Mostly leading members of standing committees

Conference Committees

• Can only consider the parts of the bill that they disagreed on

• Once they agree they report the bill

• Must be accepted or rejected without amendment

• Rarely does either house turn down their work

Conference Committees

• Two reasons for this– The powerful

membership of the typical conference committee

– Report usually comes near the rush of adjournments

• Conference committee is a strategic step called “the third house”

The President Acts

• Constitution requires that bills and resolutions be sent to the president– The President may sign

the bill and it becomes law

– President may veto the bill (return to the house it originated from)

– Can be overridden by 2/3 votes

The President Acts

• The President may allow it to become law without signing it, by not acting on it for 10 days after receiving it

• Pocket veto- if congress adjourns within 10 days of submission and President does not sign does not become law

The President Acts

• Since Congress can seldom get enough votes to override a veto it is powerful

• The mere threat of a veto is enough to defeat a bill