III 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 8 

Amending the Standing Rules of the Senate to provide for cloture to be 

invoked with less than a three-fifths majority after additional debate. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 5, 2011 

Mr. HARKIN (for himself, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. MIKULSKI, and Mrs. SHAHEEN) 

submitted the following resolution; which was ordered to lie over, under 

the rule 

RESOLUTION 

Amending the Standing Rules of the Senate to provide for 

cloture to be invoked with less than a three-fifths majority after additional debate. 

1 Resolved, 

2 SECTION 1. SENATE CLOTURE MODIFICATION. 

3 Paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of 

4 the Senate is amended to read as follows: 

5 ‘‘2. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of rule II or 

6 rule IV or any other rule of the Senate, at any time a 

7 motion signed by sixteen Senators, to bring to a close the 

8 debate upon any measure, motion, other matter pending 

9 before the Senate, or the unfinished business, is presented 


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1 to the Senate, the Presiding Officer, or clerk at the direc2 tion of the Presiding Officer, shall at once state the motion 

3 to the Senate, and one hour after the Senate meets on 

4 the following calendar day but one, he shall lay the motion 

5 before the Senate and direct that the clerk call the roll, 

6 and upon the ascertainment that a quorum is present, the 

7 Presiding Officer shall, without debate, submit to the Sen8 ate by a yea-and-nay vote the question: ‘Is it the sense 

9 of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close?’ 

10 And if that question shall be decided in the affirmative 

11 by three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn— 

12 except on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, 

13 in which case the necessary affirmative vote shall be two14 thirds of the Senators present and voting—then said 

15 measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Sen16 ate, or the unfinished business, shall be the unfinished 

17 business. 

18 ‘‘Thereafter no Senator shall be entitled to speak in 

19 all more than one hour on the measure, motion, or other 

20 matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished busi21 ness, the amendments thereto, and motions affecting the 

22 same, and it shall be the duty of the Presiding Officer 

23 to keep the time of each Senator who speaks. Except by 

24 unanimous consent, no amendment shall be proposed after 

25 the vote to bring the debate to a close, unless it had been 


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1 submitted in writing to the Journal Clerk by 1 o’clock p.m. 

2 on the day following the filing of the cloture motion if an 

3 amendment in the first degree, and unless it had been so 

4 submitted at least one hour prior to the beginning of the 

5 cloture vote if an amendment in the second degree. No 

6 dilatory motion, or dilatory amendment, or amendment 

7 not germane shall be in order. Points of order, including 

8 questions of relevancy, and appeals from the decision of 

9 the Presiding Officer, shall be decided without debate. 

10 ‘‘After no more than thirty hours of consideration of 

11 the measure, motion, or other matter on which cloture has 

12 been invoked, the Senate shall proceed, without any fur13 ther debate on any question, to vote on the final disposi14 tion thereof to the exclusion of all amendments not then 

15 actually pending before the Senate at that time and to 

16 the exclusion of all motions, except a motion to table, or 

17 to reconsider and one quorum call on demand to establish 

18 the presence of a quorum (and motions required to estab19 lish a quorum) immediately before the final vote begins. 

20 The thirty hours may be increased by the adoption of a 

21 motion, decided without debate, by a three-fifths affirma22 tive vote of the Senators duly chosen and sworn, and any 

23 such time thus agreed upon shall be equally divided be24 tween and controlled by the majority and minority leaders 

25 or their designees. However, only one motion to extend 


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1 time, specified above, may be made in any one calendar 

2 day. 

3 ‘‘If, for any reason, a measure or matter is reprinted 

4 after cloture has been invoked, amendments which were 

5 in order prior to the reprinting of the measure or matter 

6 will continue to be in order and may be conformed and 

7 reprinted at the request of the amendment’s sponsor. The 

8 conforming changes must be limited to lineation and pagi9 nation. 

10 ‘‘No Senator shall call up more than two amendments 

11 until every other Senator shall have had the opportunity 

12 to do likewise. 

13 ‘‘Notwithstanding other provisions of this rule, a Sen14 ator may yield all or part of his one hour to the majority 

15 or minority floor managers of the measure, motion, or 

16 matter or to the majority or minority leader, but each Sen17 ator specified shall not have more than two hours so yield18 ed to him and may in turn yield such time to other Sen19 ators. 

20 ‘‘Notwithstanding any other provision of this rule, 

21 any Senator who has not used or yielded at least ten min22 utes, is, if he seeks recognition, guaranteed up to ten min23 utes, inclusive, to speak only. 

24 ‘‘After cloture is invoked, the reading of any amend25 ment, including House amendments, shall be dispensed 


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1 with when the proposed amendment has been identified 

2 and has been available in printed form at the desk of the 

3 Members for not less than twenty-four hours. 

4 ‘‘(b)(1) If, upon a vote taken on a motion presented 

5 pursuant to subparagraph (a), the Senate fails to invoke 

6 cloture with respect to a measure, motion, or other matter 

7 pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, 

8 subsequent motions to bring debate to a close may be 

9 made with respect to the same measure, motion, matter, 

10 or unfinished business. It shall not be in order to file sub11 sequent cloture motions on any measure, motion, or other 

12 matter pending before the Senate, except by unanimous 

13 consent, until the previous motion has been disposed of. 

14 ‘‘(2) Such subsequent motions shall be made in the 

15 manner provided by, and subject to the provisions of, sub16 paragraph (a), except that the affirmative vote required 

17 to bring to a close debate upon that measure, motion, or 

18 other matter, or unfinished business (other than a meas19 ure or motion to amend Senate rules) shall be reduced 

20 by three votes on the second such motion, and by three 

21 additional votes on each succeeding motion, until the af22 firmative vote is reduced to a number equal to or less than 

23 an affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators duly cho24 sen and sworn. The required vote shall then be an affirma25 tive vote of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and 


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1 sworn. The requirement of an affirmative vote of a major2 ity of the Senators duly chosen and sworn shall not be 

3 further reduced upon any vote taken on any later motion 

4 made pursuant to this subparagraph with respect to that 

5 measure, motion, matter, or unfinished business.’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SPECIAL CONSIDERATION OF AMENDMENTS 

7 POSTCLOTURE. 

8 Paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of 

9 the Senate is amended by inserting at the end the fol10 lowing: 

11 ‘‘After debate has concluded under this paragraph 

12 but prior to final disposition of the pending matter, the 

13 Majority Leader and the Minority Leader may each offer 

14 not to exceed 3 amendments identified as leadership 

15 amendments if they have been timely filed under this para16 graph and are germane to the matter being amended. De17 bate on a leadership amendment shall be limited to 1 hour 

18 equally divided. A leadership amendment may not be di19 vided.’’. 

Æ 


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