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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 440 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 440

                 Improving the Senate cloture process.

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 4, 2010

 Mr. Bennet submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
               the Committee on Rules and Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
                 Improving the Senate cloture process.

Whereas the Senate rules regarding cloture serve the legitimate purpose of 
        protecting the rights of the minority;
Whereas the Senate has never been intended to operate solely on the basis of 
        majority rule; and
Whereas the Senate rules should not be abused for the purpose of delaying or 
        otherwise preventing the business of the Senate: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved,

SECTION 1. MOTIONS TO PROCEED.

    Paragraph 2 of rule VIII of the Standing Rules of the Senate is 
amended to read as follows:
    ``2. All motions to proceed to the consideration of any matter 
shall be determined without debate, except motions to proceed to a 
proposal to change the Standing Rules which shall be debatable.''.

SEC. 2. PROCESS FOR ENDING THE DEBATE.

    (a) Motion To Reduce Time for Cloture Petition To Ripen.--The first 
sentence of paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the 
Senate is amended by inserting after ``but one'' the following: 
``(unless by two-thirds affirmative vote of the Senators duly chosen 
and sworn the Senate has agreed to a motion to reduce time)''.
    (b) Allowing for a Motion To Reduce Time Postcloture.--The fourth 
undesignated paragraph of paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing 
Rules of the Senate is amended by striking the second and third 
sentences and inserting: ``The thirty hours may be increased or 
decreased by the adoption of a motion, decided without debate, by a 
three-fifths affirmative vote of the Senators present and voting, and 
any such time thus agreed upon shall be equally divided and controlled 
by the Majority and Minority Leaders or their designees. However, only 
one motion to reduce or extend time, specified above, may be made in 
any one calendar day.''.
    (c) Minority Must Vote in the Negative, or Else Cloture Is 
Invoked.--The second undesignated paragraph of paragraph 2 of rule XXII 
of the Standing Rules of the Senate is amended by striking ``And if 
that question shall be decided in the affirmative by three-fifths of 
the Senators duly chosen and sworn'' and inserting ``And if that 
question is decided in the affirmative and there are not negative votes 
by at least forty-one hundredths of the Senators duly chosen and 
sworn''.
    (d) Encouraging Bipartisan Negotiations and Bipartisan Coalition 
Building.--Paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate 
is amended by inserting at the end the following:
    ``In the event that 3 attempts to bring the debate to a close on 
any particular measure, motion, other matter pending before the Senate, 
or the unfinished business, have not received the requisite number of 
votes to bring the debate to a close under this paragraph, then for any 
subsequent attempt to bring the debate to a close on that particular 
measure, motion, other matter pending before the Senate, or the 
unfinished business, the threshold required of those voting in the 
negative in order to prevent the debate from coming to a close shall be 
45 hundredths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn, unless at least 
one of the Senators present and voting in the negative, caucuses with 
the party of the Majority Leader, in which case the threshold required 
of those voting in the negative in order to prevent the debate from 
coming to a close shall remain 41 hundredths of the Senators duly 
chosen and sworn. If there is one member of the Majority voting to 
maintain the filibuster for purposes of the preceding sentence 
maintaining the threshold for blocking cloture at 41 hundredths, the 
threshold shall be raised to 45 hundredths if 3 of those voting in the 
affirmative to bring debate to a close caucus with the party of the 
Minority Leader. For purposes of this undesignated paragraph, only 
those Senators permitted to caucus with the party of the Majority 
Leader, by the Majority Leader, shall be considered to caucus with the 
party of the Majority Leader. The Majority Leader shall request that a 
list of Senators caucusing with the party of the Majority Leader be 
listed in the Congressional Record, and any time that the Majority 
Leader shall regard composition of such list as having changed, the 
Majority Leader shall request that a new and updated list be printed in 
the Congressional Record.''.

SEC. 3. HOLDS.

    The Standing Rules of the Senate are amended by inserting at the 
end the following:

                               ``RULE XLV

                          ``Process for Holds

    ``1. A Senator who provides notice either to leadership or during 
open public debate in the full Senate of intention to object to 
proceeding to a motion or matter shall disclose the objection in the 
Congressional Record not later than 2 session days after the date of 
such notice. Upon the placement of the disclosure of objection in the 
Congressional Record, the Senate shall only continue to recognize the 
objection if the objection is raised as provided in this paragraph at 
least by one Senator who caucuses with the party of the Majority Leader 
and by one Senator who caucuses with the party of the Minority Leader. 
Under no circumstance shall a particular objection to a nomination be 
recognized for more than 30 days.
    ``2. If a second objection is raised to a nomination, no additional 
time beyond the 30-day limit of the first objection to the nominee 
shall be in order unless the second objection is raised by both at 
least one Senator who caucuses with the party of the Majority Leader 
but who did not raise the first objection, and also at least one 
Senator who caucuses with the party of the Minority Leader but who did 
not raise the first objection.
    ``3. In this rule, the term `with the party of the Majority Leader' 
has the same meaning as in rule XXII. The process for determining what 
Senator caucuses with the party of the Minority Leader under this rule 
shall be at the discretion of the Minority Leader but shall follow the 
analogous rule XXII process.''.
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