[United States Senate Manual, 110th Congress]
[S. Doc. 110-1]
[Standing Rules of the Senate]
[Pages 20-22]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


        22                            RULE XXII

                                PRECEDENCE OF MOTIONS

      22.1      1. When a question is pending, no motion shall be 
            received but--
                        To adjourn.
                        To adjourn to a day certain, or that when the 
                    Senate adjourn it shall be to a day certain.
                        To take a recess.
                        To proceed to the consideration of executive 
                    business.
                        To lay on the table.
                        To postpone indefinitely.
                        To postpone to a day certain.
                        To commit.
                        To amend.
            Which several motions shall have precedence as they stand 
            arranged; and the motions relating to adjournment, to take a 
            recess, to proceed to the consideration of executive 
            business, to lay on the table, shall be decided without 
            debate.

      22.2      2.\5\ 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,

[[Page 21]]

            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:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                \5\As amended by S. Res. 28, 99-2, Feb. 27, 1986.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                ``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 to the exclusion of all other business until 
            disposed of.
                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,

[[Page 22]]

            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.