[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,
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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:
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\5\As amended by S. Res. 28, 99-2, Feb. 27, 1986.
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``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,
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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.