[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 138 Introduced in Senate (IS)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 138

To amend rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate relating to the 
 consideration of nominations requiring the advice and consent of the 
                                Senate.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 9, 2003

  Mr. Frist (for himself, Mr. Miller, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Stevens, Mr. 
Santorum, Mr. Kyl, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Allen, Mr. Lott, Mr. Hatch, Mr. 
 Cornyn, and Mr. Chambliss) submitted the following resolution; which 
       was referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
To amend rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate relating to the 
 consideration of nominations requiring the advice and consent of the 
                                Senate.

    Resolved, That rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate is 
amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2), by striking ``Notwithstanding'' and 
        inserting ``Except as provided by paragraph 3 and 
        notwithstanding''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``3. (a) The provisions of this paragraph shall apply to the 
considerations of nominations requiring the advice and consent of the 
Senate.
    ``(b)(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of rule II or rule IV or 
any other rule of the Senate and after a nomination requiring the 
advice and consent of the Senate has been pending before the Senate for 
at least 12 hours, a motion signed by 16 Senators to bring to a close 
the debate on that nomination may be presented to the Senate and the 
Presiding Officer, or clerk at the direction of the Presiding Officer, 
shall at once state the motion to the Senate, and 1 hour after the 
Senate meets on the following calendar day but 1, he shall lay the 
motion before the Senate and direct that the clerk call the roll, and 
upon the ascertainment that a quorum is present, the Presiding Officer 
shall, without debate, submit to the Senate by a yea-and-nay vote the 
question: `Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be 
brought to a close?'.
    ``(2) If the question in clause (1) is agreed to by three-fifths of 
the Senators duly chosen and sworn then the nomination pending before 
the Senate shall be the unfinished business to the exclusion of all 
other business until disposed of.
    ``(3) After cloture is invoked, no Senator shall be entitled to 
speak in all more than 1 hour on the nomination pending before the 
Senate and it shall be the duty of the Presiding Officer to keep the 
time of each Senator who speaks. No dilatory motion shall be in order. 
Points of order and appeals from the decision of the Presiding Officer 
shall be decided without debate.
    ``(4) After no more than 30 hours of consideration of the 
nomination on which cloture has been invoked, the Senate shall proceed, 
without any further debate on any question, to vote on the final 
disposition thereof to the exclusion of all motions, except a motion to 
table, or to reconsider and one quorum call on demand to establish the 
presence of a quorum (and motions required to establish a quorum) 
immediately before the final vote begins. The 30 hours may be increased 
by the adoption of a motion, decided without debate, by a three-fifths 
affirmative vote of the Senators duly chosen and sworn, and any such 
time thus agreed upon shall be equally divided between and controlled 
by the Majority and Minority Leaders or their designees. However, only 
one motion to extend time, specified above, may be made in any 1 
calendar day.
    ``(5) Notwithstanding other provisions of this rule, a Senator may 
yield all or part of his 1 hour to the majority or minority floor 
managers of the nomination or to the Majority or Minority Leader, but 
each Senator specified shall not have more than 2 hours so yielded to 
him and may in turn yield such time to other Senators.
    ``(6) Notwithstanding any other provision of this rule, any Senator 
who has not used or yielded at least 10 minutes, is, if he seeks 
recognition, guaranteed up to 10 minutes, inclusive, to speak only.
    ``(c)(1) If, upon a vote taken on a motion presented pursuant to 
subparagraph (b), the Senate fails to invoke cloture with respect to a 
nomination pending before the Senate, subsequent motions to bring 
debate to a close may be made with respect to the same nomination. It 
shall not be in order to file subsequent cloture motions on any 
nomination, except by unanimous consent, until the previous motion has 
been disposed of.
    ``(2) Such subsequent motions shall be made in the manner provided 
by, and subject to the provisions of, subparagraph (b), except that the 
affirmative vote required to bring to a close debate upon that 
nomination shall be reduced by 3 votes on the second such motion, and 
by 3 additional votes on each succeeding motion, until the affirmative 
vote is reduced to a number equal to or less than an affirmative vote 
of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn. The required vote 
shall then be a simple majority.''.
                                 <all>