Senate Debate
May 6th 2010 12:28
The senate debating a bill should be fairly easy to explain because the members can speak as long as they want. This differs from congress because the rules committee has set time limits when members speak and though extensions are often granted that is not always the case. There is another difference (that you should know from the previous posting) is that when congress discusses a bill there can be no riders or amendments, when the Senate debates a bill amendments or riders can be added and they do not have to be relevant to the bill they can be on a totally different subject matter. The Investment News blog fi360 wrote on April 16, 2010 that “Senators Daniel Akaka (D - HI) and Robert Menendez (D - NJ) are considering offering an amendment to the Senate bill that would remove a provision that calls for a study of whether the fiduciary duty should be extended to broker-dealers. The proposed study would be replaced with a provision that would authorize the SEC to adopt rules requiring broker-dealers who provide advice to comply with the fiduciary standard--an approach similar to that approved in the House financial bill.” Or an entire bill can be added to another as a rider. “Congress on Wednesday sent President Obama a set of new rules governing credit card companies, completing a trio of consumer-related measures that Democrats had raced to get signed into law by Memorial Day. But the credit card victory came at a cost that angered some backers of the legislation: approval of an unrelated provision allowing visitors to national parks and wildlife refuges to carry loaded weapons if they are otherwise licensed to possess guns”(Hulse, 2009). So there are some similarities to how the how and the senate debate bills but there are also some major differences that can have a significant impact on a bill going forward and to you the taxpayer.
Another major difference is that the Senate can talk a bill to death, literally (that is not to say that the members of congress cannot filibuster. They can and often do but not to the extent that the senate does. What that means is Senators can use the filibuster to defeat a bill by talking and debating and talking so that the bill never comes to vote thereby talking the bill to death. One Such example was the Crime Bill the George H.W. Bush (the 41st President) wanted past.
A story in the Washington Post (March, 20, 1992) reported that “The Senate shelved Democratic-drafted anti-crime legislation last night after Democrats failed by six votes to shut off a Republican filibuster that has held up the veto-threatened bill since late last year.
The measure would impose the death penalty for more than 50 federal crimes, curtail death-row appeals, authorize $3.5 billion in law enforcement assistance to state and local governments and impose a week-long waiting period for purchase of a handgun.
While the bill remains on the Senate docket and could be revived later in the year, "the chance of getting a crime bill this year is highly unlikely," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr.” (Dewar,1992). The only way to prevent this from happening is to invoke cloture. Cloture is used by senators to end the debate or filibuster. In order for a cloture to be invoked requires a vote by 3/5 of the full Senate. If cloture is invoked further debate is limited to 30 hours, it is not a vote on the passage of the piece of legislation. Here is an example when a nomination failed to pass the Senate because the call for Cloture failed. “The Senate voted against invoking cloture on Obama appointee Craig Becker, a nominee for the National Labor Relations Board. The final vote was 52-33, with all Republicans opposed, including Scott Brown, who claimed to be “undecided” last week. Among Democrats, both Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln voted against Becker, an associate general counsel for the SEIU and the AFL-CIO, for the five-person board, which currently only holds two members. Because the Becker nomination was paired with two other nominees, a vote against him is essentially a vote to keep the NLRB in a non-functional state. Some other Democrats were unable to make the vote, owing to the weather in Washington, DC. (Dayen, 2010)” On November 2, 2009 the senate Senators have adopted a procedural (cloture) motion on the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act (H.R. 3548) by a vote of 85 to 2. The vote actually occurred on the Senate substitute amendment, which modifies the House-passed bill. As you can see cloture is a pretty powerful tool.
Dewar, H., (1992) Senate Crime Bill Shelved After Republican Filibuster, The Washington Post, March 20, 1992
Hulse, C., (2009) Bill Changing Credit Card Rules Is Sent to Obama With Gun Measure Included, New York Times, May 20, 2009
Dayen, D., 2010 FDL Blog retrieved May 2, 2010 from Really Long Link
A story in the Washington Post (March, 20, 1992) reported that “The Senate shelved Democratic-drafted anti-crime legislation last night after Democrats failed by six votes to shut off a Republican filibuster that has held up the veto-threatened bill since late last year.
The measure would impose the death penalty for more than 50 federal crimes, curtail death-row appeals, authorize $3.5 billion in law enforcement assistance to state and local governments and impose a week-long waiting period for purchase of a handgun.
While the bill remains on the Senate docket and could be revived later in the year, "the chance of getting a crime bill this year is highly unlikely," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr.” (Dewar,1992). The only way to prevent this from happening is to invoke cloture. Cloture is used by senators to end the debate or filibuster. In order for a cloture to be invoked requires a vote by 3/5 of the full Senate. If cloture is invoked further debate is limited to 30 hours, it is not a vote on the passage of the piece of legislation. Here is an example when a nomination failed to pass the Senate because the call for Cloture failed. “The Senate voted against invoking cloture on Obama appointee Craig Becker, a nominee for the National Labor Relations Board. The final vote was 52-33, with all Republicans opposed, including Scott Brown, who claimed to be “undecided” last week. Among Democrats, both Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln voted against Becker, an associate general counsel for the SEIU and the AFL-CIO, for the five-person board, which currently only holds two members. Because the Becker nomination was paired with two other nominees, a vote against him is essentially a vote to keep the NLRB in a non-functional state. Some other Democrats were unable to make the vote, owing to the weather in Washington, DC. (Dayen, 2010)” On November 2, 2009 the senate Senators have adopted a procedural (cloture) motion on the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act (H.R. 3548) by a vote of 85 to 2. The vote actually occurred on the Senate substitute amendment, which modifies the House-passed bill. As you can see cloture is a pretty powerful tool.
Dewar, H., (1992) Senate Crime Bill Shelved After Republican Filibuster, The Washington Post, March 20, 1992
Hulse, C., (2009) Bill Changing Credit Card Rules Is Sent to Obama With Gun Measure Included, New York Times, May 20, 2009
Dayen, D., 2010 FDL Blog retrieved May 2, 2010 from Really Long Link
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