Senate

UCA’s in the Senate In the Senate, a measure typically reaches the floor through the mechanism of a unanimous consent agreement (UCA), which is a formal understanding on procedures for conducting business in the Senate that requires the acceptance of every member of the chamber. UCAs limit debate and determine the amendments that can be offered, similar to the rules granted by the Rules Committee in the House.

Senate Holds In the United States Senate, a hold is a parliamentary procedure permitted by the Standing Rules of the United States Senate which allows one or more Senators to prevent a motion from reaching a vote on the Senate floor. A hold is a threat to filibuster. Members use them as bargaining chips. In this Nov. 21, 2013, file photo reviewed by the U.S. military, dawn arrives at the now closed Camp X-Ray, which was used as the first detention facility for al-Qaida and Taliban militants who were captured after the Sept. 11 attacks at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

threatens-block-obama-appointees-over-guantanamo-closure U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who has repeatedly threatened to use his power as a senator to stop the transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the American mainland, announced Wednesday that he has placed a hold on President Barack Obama’s nominee for the secretary of the Army. Senate rules allow a senator or group of senators to use the parliamentary procedure known as a hold to prevent actions from coming to a vote in the Senate.

Filibusters and Cloture Votes (Senate only)

Filibuster A filibuster is an attempt to defeat the measure through prolonged debate. In the 1950s and 1960s, Senators conducting a filibuster engaged in longwinded debate while Senate leaders kept the chamber in overnight marathon session in order to break the filibuster and move on with a vote. Texas Sen. Bil Meier during his 43 hour filibuster in 1977.

Modern Filibuster Senators simply announce their intention to filibuster and the Senate goes on with other business while the leadership works to gather sufficient support to invoke cloture. Sometimes, Senate leaders file a cloture petition to end debate even before a filibuster materializes. Most filibusters are used to disrupt Senate procedure and block lawmakers form advancing legislation, Cruz won’t have that ability. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) scheduled a vote on the continuing resolution for Wednesday early afternoon, at which time Cruz will be booted from the floor.

Cloture The procedure for ending a filibuster is known as cloture. a three-fifths vote of the Senate membership (60 votes) to succeed.

Filibusters More Frequent The filibuster has become so common that virtually every action in the Senate now requires 60 votes.

Filibuster as Partisan Weapon The Senate averaged one filibuster per Congress in the 1950s, five per Congress in the 1960s, 11 in the 1970s, and, most recently, 52 per Congress. In 2009, Republicans filibustered 80 percent of major legislation, including some measures most of them supported.

Filibuster Reform In 2013, Majority Leader Harry Reid forced through filibuster reform to prohibit the filibuster for all nominations except Supreme Court nominations. As a result, the Senate was able to confirm more than 60 judicial nominees that had been blocked.

Final Passage in the Senate Once cloture is invoked and debate ends, the Senate votes. Majority rules.

Conference Committee (if necessary)

Conference Committees A measure does not pass Congress until it clears both the House and Senate in identical form. If the House and Senate pass similar but not identical bills, the chamber that initially passed the measure can agree to the changes made by the other chamber or the two houses can resolve their differences by adopting a series of reconciling amendments. When the differences between the two houses are too great for easy resolution, the two chambers appoint a conference committee, which is a special congressional committee created to negotiate differences on similar pieces of legislation passed by the House and Senate. Conference committees are growing increasingly rare because all of the steps needed to create the committee and appoint members are subject to filibuster in the Senate.

Conferees The Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader appoint the members of a conference committee (called conferees) from lists given to them by committee leaders. Although the Speaker and Majority Leader can appoint any member of Congress to serve on a conference committee, they almost always select members of the standing committee or committees that considered the bill, including the committee chair(s) and ranking member(s). Conference committees include members of both parties although the majority party has the majority of conferees.

Third House of Congress A conference committee is sometimes called the third house of Congress because it writes the final version of legislation. The conferees are not bound to stick with the version of the measures passed by either the House or the Senate. The conference committee can delete provisions passed by both houses and include provisions passed by neither.

Conference Report = Compromise The final version of major legislation produced by a conference committee, the conference report, reflects not just a compromise between the House and Senate, but a compromise among the party leadership in each chamber, the president, and key interest groups with a stake in the legislation.

Conference Report The conference report must be approved by a majority of each chamber’s conferees voting separately. The measure is then returned to the House and Senate floor for a final vote. In today’s Congress, conference voting is usually along party lines. In fact, if one party controls both chambers of Congress, the majority members of the conference committee often meet separately without the minority members present.

Vote for Final Passage

Final Floor Vote The first chamber to vote on the conference report has three options: to accept, reject, or return to conference for more negotiations. If the first chamber accepts the measure, the second chamber has two options, to adopt or reject. If both chambers accept the conference report, the measure has passed Congress and goes to the president.

Presidential Action

Presidential Options  President can sign the bill  Bill becomes law in 10 days if president does not act and Congress is in session.  Bill dies after 10 days if Congress has adjourned—a pocket veto.  President issues a veto.

Veto Override (if necessary)

Override Congress can override the veto by a two-thirds vote of each house voting separately. Since the administration of Franklin Roosevelt, presidents have vetoed 1,349 measures, with Congress overriding 60 vetoes for an override rate of 4.4 percent. Vetoes and veto overrides are more common when the other party controls Congress.