[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 5, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S65]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 8--AMENDING THE STANDING RULES OF THE SENATE TO 
    PROVIDE FOR CLOTURE TO BE INVOKED WITH LESS THAN A THREE-FIFTHS 
                    MAJORITY AFTER ADDITIONAL DEBATE

  Mr. HARKIN (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Ms. Mikulski, and Mrs. Shaheen) 
submitted the following resolution; which was submitted and read:

                               S. Res. 8

       Resolved,

     SECTION 1. SENATE CLOTURE MODIFICATION.

       Paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the 
     Senate is amended to read as follows:
       ``2. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of rule II or rule 
     IV or any other rule of the Senate, at any time a motion 
     signed by sixteen Senators, to bring to a close the debate 
     upon any measure, motion, other matter pending before the 
     Senate, or the unfinished business, is presented to the 
     Senate, the Presiding Officer, or clerk at the direction of 
     the Presiding Officer, shall at once state the motion to the 
     Senate, and one hour after the Senate meets on the following 
     calendar day but one, 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?' And if that question 
     shall be decided in the affirmative by three-fifths of the 
     Senators duly chosen and sworn--except on a measure or motion 
     to amend the Senate rules, in which case the necessary 
     affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the Senators present 
     and voting--then said measure, motion, or other matter 
     pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, shall 
     be the unfinished business.
       ``Thereafter no Senator shall be entitled to speak in all 
     more than one hour on the measure, motion, or other matter 
     pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, the 
     amendments thereto, and motions affecting the same, and it 
     shall be the duty of the Presiding Officer to keep the time 
     of each Senator who speaks. Except by unanimous consent, no 
     amendment shall be proposed after the vote to bring the 
     debate to a close, unless it had been submitted in writing to 
     the Journal Clerk by 1 o'clock p.m. on the day following the 
     filing of the cloture motion if an amendment in the first 
     degree, and unless it had been so submitted at least one hour 
     prior to the beginning of the cloture vote if an amendment in 
     the second degree. No dilatory motion, or dilatory amendment, 
     or amendment not germane shall be in order. Points of order, 
     including questions of relevancy, and appeals from the 
     decision of the Presiding Officer, shall be decided without 
     debate.
       ``After no more than thirty hours of consideration of the 
     measure, motion, or other matter 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 amendments not then actually pending 
     before the Senate at that time and 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 thirty 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 one calendar day.
       ``If, for any reason, a measure or matter is reprinted 
     after cloture has been invoked, amendments which were in 
     order prior to the reprinting of the measure or matter will 
     continue to be in order and may be conformed and reprinted at 
     the request of the amendment's sponsor. The conforming 
     changes must be limited to lineation and pagination.
       ``No Senator shall call up more than two amendments until 
     every other Senator shall have had the opportunity to do 
     likewise.
       ``Notwithstanding other provisions of this rule, a Senator 
     may yield all or part of his one hour to the majority or 
     minority floor managers of the measure, motion, or matter or 
     to the majority or minority leader, but each Senator 
     specified shall not have more than two hours so yielded to 
     him and may in turn yield such time to other Senators.
       ``Notwithstanding any other provision of this rule, any 
     Senator who has not used or yielded at least ten minutes, is, 
     if he seeks recognition, guaranteed up to ten minutes, 
     inclusive, to speak only.
       ``After cloture is invoked, the reading of any amendment, 
     including House amendments, shall be dispensed with when the 
     proposed amendment has been identified and has been available 
     in printed form at the desk of the Members for not less than 
     twenty-four hours.
       ``(b)(1) If, upon a vote taken on a motion presented 
     pursuant to subparagraph (a), the Senate fails to invoke 
     cloture with respect to a measure, motion, or other matter 
     pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, 
     subsequent motions to bring debate to a close may be made 
     with respect to the same measure, motion, matter, or 
     unfinished business. It shall not be in order to file 
     subsequent cloture motions on any measure, motion, or other 
     matter pending before the Senate, 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 
     (a), except that the affirmative vote required to bring to a 
     close debate upon that measure, motion, or other matter, or 
     unfinished business (other than a measure or motion to amend 
     Senate rules) shall be reduced by three votes on the second 
     such motion, and by three 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 an affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators 
     duly chosen and sworn. The requirement of an affirmative vote 
     of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn shall not 
     be further reduced upon any vote taken on any later motion 
     made pursuant to this subparagraph with respect to that 
     measure, motion, matter, or unfinished business.''.

     SEC. 2. SPECIAL CONSIDERATION OF AMENDMENTS POSTCLOTURE.

       Paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the 
     Senate is amended by inserting at the end the following:
       ``After debate has concluded under this paragraph but prior 
     to final disposition of the pending matter, the Majority 
     Leader and the Minority Leader may each offer not to exceed 3 
     amendments identified as leadership amendments if they have 
     been timely filed under this paragraph and are germane to the 
     matter being amended. Debate on a leadership amendment shall 
     be limited to 1 hour equally divided. A leadership amendment 
     may not be divided.''.

                          ____________________