[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 57 (Monday, March 31, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1919-S1920]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Vote-arama

  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I have a little advice, really, of a 
parliamentary nature for the U.S. Senate. I hope it will be taken in 
the constructive spirit that it is intended. This week, the Senate is 
expected, once again, to vote on a budget resolution. It is among the 
most important actions we will take all year.
  Unfortunately, one unpleasant aspect of this process will be the so-
called vote-arama. We just had one a few weeks ago. There is no 
specific mention of the vote-arama in the 1974 Congressional Budget 
Act. This process was never envisioned by the drafters of the budget 
law. But it evolved to its current form because the Congressional 
Budget Act allows debate up to 20

[[Page S1920]]

hours and does not restrict the number of amendments Senators can 
offer.
  Here is how it actually works. And you know this quite well, Mr. 
President, as a new Member of the Senate. On the day of the amendment 
votes, Senators will sit around on the floor and in the Cloakrooms and 
in the anterooms of the Chamber and stare at each other all day, make 
offers and counteroffers. Then late in the day, usually in the early 
evening, we begin debate. We make brief 1-minute speeches, and we vote 
over and over and over into the wee hours of the morning.
  One result is that the process is, by then, hidden, relegated to the 
darkness of nighttime. Most Americans are already asleep when we get 
down to business in the vote-arama. What they miss, though, is mostly 
political theater. In this production, the roles never change. I have 
been in the minority at times during my tenure in the Senate. I have 
been in the majority, as I am now. But the roles stay the same. The 
minority party has one job: to offer amendments--germane or not, 
pertinent or not--that put the majority in an uncomfortable position.
  As a Member of the minority party, I have done that. The majority 
party has the job of defeating every amendment, if possible. It doesn't 
matter what the merit of the amendments are. The majority party often 
defeats each one. Why? Because otherwise, we would delay the important 
work of actually, finally, getting to passage of a budget 
reconciliation bill, which will come later.
  The vote-arama hardly ever has any budgetary substance. The vote-
arama is merely a messaging process. Every Member of the Senate, 
minority and majority, knows this. Americans at least deserve to hear 
this debate during the light of day. Both parties can achieve their 
goals without running this process into the wee hours of the morning, 
which is what we always do.
  Over the last few weeks, I have talked with Members on both sides of 
the aisle, my Republican colleagues and our Democratic friends. I 
floated the idea of a unanimous consent agreement to conduct these 
votes during the light of day. I simply say, Mr. President, there is 
widespread support among the rank and file for getting this done during 
working hours.
  So I would urge the leadership of both parties and all Members of 
both parties--because it takes unanimous consent--to adopt a unanimous 
consent agreement that avoids the political theater of a dead-of-night 
vote-arama. The American people deserve better. And I would like to 
think the U.S. Senate is better than the process we have come to 
practice.
  I yield the floor.