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- A cloture motion is a procedural motion that, if adopted, limits further debate on the matter at hand. It allows the majority to defeat efforts by the minority to delay or obstruct proceedings on a matter by showing the matter has the support of a super-majority.
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Prior to 1917 the Senate rules did not provide for a way to end debate and force a vote on a measure. That year, the Senate adopted a rule to allow a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster, a procedure known as "cloture."
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The rule required a two-thirds majority to end debate and permitted each member to speak for an additional hour after that before voting on final passage. Over the next 46 years, the Senate managed to invoke cloture on only five occasions.
- Cloture History
- Reasons For Cloture Rule
- President Calls For Cloture
- Cloture Impact
- Cloture Majority
- Cloture Frequency
The Senate first adopted the cloture rule in 1917 after President Woodrow Wilsoncalled for the implementation of a procedure to end debate on any given matter. The first cloture rule allowed for such a move with the support of a two-thirds majority in the upper chamber of Congress. Cloture was first used two years later, in 1919, when the Senate wa...
The cloture rule was adopted at a time when deliberations in the Senate had ground to a halt, frustrating President Wilson during a time of war. At the end of the session in 1917, lawmakers filibustered for 23 daysagainst Wilson's proposal to arm merchant ships, according to the Senate Historian's office. The delay tactic also hampered efforts to p...
Wilson railed against the Senate, calling it "the only legislative body in the world which cannot act when its majority is ready for action. A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible." As a result, the Senate wrote and passed the original c...
Invoking cloture guarantees that a Senate vote on the bill or amendment being debated will eventually happen. The House does not have a similar measure. When cloture is invoked, senators are also required to engage in debate that is "germane" to the legislation being discussed. The rule contains a clause the any speech following the invocation of c...
The majority needed to invoke cloture in the Senate remained two-thirds, or 67 votes, of the 100-member body from the rule's adoption in 1917 until 1975, when the number of votes needed was reduced to just 60. To being the cloture process, at least 16 members of the Senate must sign a cloture motion or petition that states: "We, the undersigned Sen...
Cloture was rarely invoked in the early 1900s and mid-1900s. The rule was used only four times, in fact, between 1917 and 1960. Cloture became more common only in the late 1970s, according to records kept by the Senate. The procedure was used a record 187 times in the 113th Congress, which met in 2013 and 2014 during President Barack Obama's second...
Cloture, or Rule XXII, is a procedure that allows the Senate to vote to limit debate and end a filibuster. Sixteen senators must present a motion to end debate. A vote on the motion is usually held the second day of session after the motion is made.
Cloture ( UK: US: / ˈkloʊtʃər /, [ 1][ 2] also UK: / ˈkloʊtjʊər / ), [ 3] closure[ 4] or, informally, a guillotine, [ 4] is a motion or process in parliamentary procedure aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken.
Over the next four decades, the Senate managed to invoke cloture only five times. Filibusters proved to be particularly useful to southern senators who sought to block civil rights legislation, including anti-lynching bills.
A cloture’s main purpose is to provide a means to check a filibuster—an endless debate by a minority to keep a motion from being put to a vote. In most parliamentary bodies a cloture motion is not debatable, is not subject to amendment, and requires more than a simple majority vote.
