Minority Rules - Ten Ways to Bring the Senate to Its Knees

It may only take 60 votes to get something accomplished in the Senate, but it takes 100 votes to do so quickly. Senators who want to block progress can force hours of irrelevant debate. Or they can gum up the works with extraneous amendments. Or they can force lengthy amendments to be read aloud. Or they can demand time-consuming roll call votes on frivolous procedural objections. And with each minute wasted, the clock ticks closer and closer to the end of the 111th Congress in January.

Let’s be clear—the level of obstruction in today’s Senate is unprecedented. But obstruction and delay is cooked deep into the Senate’s meat. Indeed, there are so many ways to shut down business in the Senate—many of which can be implemented by one lone senator—that the real surprise is that the Senate has ever accomplished anything. There are many more ways to block progress in the Senate than this brief paper can detail, but here is a short list of ten ways to bring the Senate to its knees.

Obstruction tactic No. 1—endless debate
The word “debate” does not mean much in the United States Senate. Rather than being a free exchange of ideas intended to convince other senators of one position or another, most Senate debate time is occupied by senators giving closely vetted speeches to an almost-entirely empty chamber. Nevertheless, the Senate rules make it very difficult to stop the serial speeches and actually hold a vote. Unless at least 60 senators agree to hold a vote, the speeches go on forever. A “filibuster” is nothing more than a senator’s decision to prevent the Senate from holding a vote on a particular issue until 60 of their colleagues finally tell them “no.”


Obstruction tactic No. 2—endless debate over whether to debate
Not only can senators use the filibuster to force endless debate, they can also use it to prevent debate from starting in the first place. Before the Senate can begin debate on most legislation, the senators must either unanimously agree to consider it or the majority leader must offer a “motion to proceed” to consideration of that bill. This motion can be filibustered. Thus, for almost all bills, dissenting senators have at least two opportunities to filibuster, once to prevent debate from starting and another time to prevent it from ending.

Obstruction tactic No. 3—endless debate over whether to negotiate
If the House and Senate pass similar but not identical bills, the differences between the two bills generally are hashed out through a process known as a “conference committee” comprised of relevant members of the Senate and House of Representatives. Before these negotiations can begin, however, the Senate must pass three motions: a motion formally disagreeing with the House bill; a motion expressing the Senate’s desire to conference; and a motion enabling a small group of senators to be designated as negotiators. Each of these three motions can be filibustered.

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