(1) Just six of them – Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Al Franken, Joe Manchin, Claire McCaskill and Vermont independent Bernie Sanders – voted against the procedural cloture motion that ended debate on the bill, though a total of 22 Democrats were against final passage.
(2) The Democrats need 60 votes to achieve "cloture" or avoid a filibuster, and that seems near-impossible.
(3) Passage of the compromise amendment is by no means guaranteed, with a number of those voting for the cloture motion still expected to vote against the bill itself.
(4) Reid will bring a so-called 'motion to proceed' vote on Wednesday followed by a 'cloture' vote to end debate on Friday or Saturday.
(5) Reid will bring a so-called motion to proceed vote on Wednesday followed by a cloture vote to end debate on Friday or Saturday.
(6) It turns out that the threat Reid acted on today was broader than the one defused in July: this one eliminates the 60-vote cloture threshold for executive and judicial nominees; the summer threat only dealt with executive nominees.
(7) After promising to bring the compromise to the floor, majority leader Mitch McConnell opted not to set up a normal cloture vote, choosing instead to use a procedural maneuver known as a “ motion to table ”, in which lawmakers were essentially voting to discard the bill.
(8) Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and longtime Freedom Act skeptic, brought herself to support the bill during the cloture motion for precisely that reason.
(9) In the end, the procedural motion, known as cloture, passed with the support of all 55 members of the Senate's Democratic caucus, who were joined by 12 of their Republican colleagues.
(10) Even if all four voted with Democrats for the USA Freedom Act, they would need 10 more Republicans to reach the 60 votes needed for cloture.
(11) The overall majority of 68 to 31 in favour of the so-called "cloture" motion to proceed to a gun vote comfortably cleared the 60-vote hurdle needed to prevent a filibuster – the tactic typically employed by Republicans, who are in minority in the Senate.
(12) Nevertheless, it is far from clear that there are enough Republican votes to reach cloture on the USA Freedom Act either.
(13) Two Democrats voted against the cloture vote: Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas.
(14) The Senate’s rules are notoriously complex and the vote last night was “on cloture on the motion to proceed”, which means it sought to limit debate on a motion to actually reconsider the bill.
(15) Thursday’s cloture vote – to bring debate to a close – happened in the middle of a jam-packed Senate schedule in advance of the Memorial Day recess.
(16) There would have to be a major change of heart from at least one Republican in order to avoid a filibuster or make cloture.
(17) Both cloture votes – on USA Freedom and the Patriot Act extension – could come as early as later on Thursday after an equally close-fought battle to pass trade “fast-track” legislation and few would predict which way they would now go.
(18) Despite attempts by Senator Rand Paul to separate the Syrian authorisation from the wider bill on the grounds that it deserved a separate debate, just 27 senators stood in the way of the cloture motion which allowed Obama to avoid a potentially embarrassing direct vote.
(19) However, this would still require Democrats to vote against the procedural “cloture” motion that is needed to bring debate to a close, and it was not yet clear on Tuesday morning whether all those reluctantly supporting the Iran deal would be prepared to do this and risk being accused of filibustering such an important vote.
(20) This is because cloture motions on both bills to bring debate to a close will take two days to complete, pushing final votes back until at least Saturday.
Filibuster
Definition:
(n.) A lawless military adventurer, especially one in quest of plunder; a freebooter; -- originally applied to buccaneers infesting the Spanish American coasts, but introduced into common English to designate the followers of Lopez in his expedition to Cuba in 1851, and those of Walker in his expedition to Nicaragua, in 1855.
(v. i.) To act as a filibuster, or military freebooter.
(v. i.) To delay legislation, by dilatory motions or other artifices.
Example Sentences:
(1) They include two leading Republican hopefuls for the presidential race in 2016, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio; three of them enjoy A+ rankings from the NRA and a further eight are listed A. Rand Paul of Kentucky The junior senator's penchant for filibusters became famous during his nearly 13-hour speech against the use unmanned drones, and he is one of three senators who sent an initial missive to Reid , warning him of another verbose round.
(2) The immunity was enacted by an overwhelming bipartisan vote, with the support of leading Democrats including Barack Obama, who had promised - when seeking his party's nomination - to filibuster any bill that contained retroactive telecom immunity.
(3) Republicans are pushing their plan under rules that prevent a filibuster, so long as all the bill’s provisions pertain to government spending.
(4) McConnell argues that Wednesday’s speech was not technically a filibuster since Paul was unable to stop him taking back control of the floor under Senate rules when the next session resumed on Thursday.
(5) If passed, the TPA would give Congress the ability to review and vote for or against a final trade agreement, but it wouldn’t be able to amend it or filibuster it.
(6) Their filibustering brought 13 years of time, four spent arguing over where they should stand trial.
(7) The Texan first-term senator also revealed that he had swapped his usual ostrich-skin "argument boots" for a pair of black tennis shoes after taking advice from Rand Paul, who staged a shorter filibuster last year against US drone strikes.
(8) In 2011 the Texan senator stymied Republican legislative plans by filibustering for more than an hour, forcing the Texas governor and former presidential hopeful Rick Perry to call a special session to keep his party's austerity finance bill in play.
(9) Democrats are now trying to reach 41 votes, enough to block the disapproval vote in the Senate by filibuster, and spare Obama from having to spend political capital on a veto.
(10) The aim of the filibuster was to prevent the bill, by Republican senator Glen Hegar, reaching Perry.
(11) Showing signs of continuing well into the night, Cruz's pseudo-filibuster deployed the colourful rhetoric that have made him a 2016 presidential favourite among Tea Party conservatives.
(12) Instead, the big question going forward is: now that a precedent for simple-majority votes to change filibuster rules has been set, how far will it go?
(13) The bill became a keystone in the nationwide reproductive rights battle after Texas state senator Wendy Davis endured a marathon filibuster to block the passage of the bill in the first special session.
(14) But Republicans in that chamber will need to peel off eight Democratic or independent votes for the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.
(15) "I want to make sure everyone understands: There is no filibuster today," declared Reid at the outset of Tuesday's session.
(16) In all, Davis spoke for 10 hours and 45 minutes in an attempt to filibuster the bill.
(17) Paul, a Kentucky senator and son of libertarian hero and former presidential hopeful Ron Paul, said he was making the filibuster attempt out of outrage at recent comments made by Obama officials on the possible legality of carrying out drone strikes against US citizens on American soil.
(18) During her epic address, Davis was equipped with the trainers, a back brace and according to recent reports, a catheter , to help her persevere with her filibuster until the legislative session was eventually timed out and the bill, which would effectively close dozens of Texas abortion clinics, was significantly delayed.
(19) Several Republicans have threatened to filibuster gun reform measures in the Senate.
(20) A lot of liberals argue that today: “Well, McConnell's probably going to get rid of the filibuster anyway the next chance he gets, so the Democrats might as well do it now while they're in power.” Today's rules change, though, will give McConnell more cover to those more serious, additional limitations to the filibuster, if he ever gets the chance.