To being the cloture process, at least 16 members of the Senate must sign a cloture motion or petition that states: We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate upon (the matter in question).The Senate first adopted the cloture rule in 1917 after President Woodrow Wilson called for the implementation of a procedure to end debate on any given matter.Tom Murse is a former political reporter and current Managing Editor of daily paper LNP, and weekly political paper The Caucus, both published by LNP Media in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.Cloture is a procedure used occasionally in the U.S.
Senate to break a filibuster. Cloture, or Rule 22, is the only formal procedure in Senate parliamentary rules, in fact, that can force an end to the stalling tactic. ![]() The first cloture rule allowed for such a move with the support of a two-thirds majority in the upper chamber of Congress. Cloture was first used two years later, in 1919, when the Senate was debating the Treaty of Versailles, the peace agreement between Germany and the Allied Powers that officially ended World War I. Lawmakers successfully invoked cloture to end a lengthy filibuster on the matter. Perhaps the most well known use of cloture came when the Senate invoked the rule after a 57-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ![]() The cloture rule was adopted at a time when deliberations in the Senate had ground to a halt, frustrating President Wilson during a time of war. ![]() The delay tactic also hampered efforts to pass other important legislation. Wilson railed against the Senate, calling it the only legislative body in the world which cannot act when its majority is ready for action. A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible. As a result, the Senate wrote and passed the original cloture rule on March 8, 1917. In addition to ending filibusters, the new rule allowed each senator an additional hour to speak after invoking cloture and before voting on a bills final passage. Despite Wilsons influence in instituting the rule, cloture was invoked only five times over the course of the following four and a half decades. Invoking cloture guarantees that a Senate vote on the bill or amendment being debated will eventually happen. When cloture is invoked, senators are also required to engage in debate that is germane to the legislation being discussed. The rule contains a clause the any speech following the invocation of cloture must be on the measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate. The cloture rule thereby prevents lawmakers from merely stalling for another hour by, say, reciting the Declaration of Independence or reading names from a phone book. The majority needed to invoke cloture in the Senate remained two-thirds, or 67 votes, of the 100-member body from the rules adoption in 1917 until 1975, when the number of votes needed was reduced to just 60.
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