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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Invoking Cloture in the Senate

Christopher M. Davis
Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process

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.1 A Senator can make a nondebatable motion to table an amendment, and if a majority of the Senate votes for that motion, the effect is to reject the amendment. Thus, the motion to table cannot be used to conclude a debate when Senators still wish to speak and to enable the Senate to vote for the proposal it is considering. Only the cloture provisions of Rule XXII achieve this purpose.


Date of Report: February 25, 2011
Number of Pages: 4
Order Number: 98-425
Price: $19.95

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