cloture

n.
A parliamentary procedure by which debate is ended and an immediate vote is taken on the matter under discussion. Also called closure.

tr.v., -tured, -tur·ing, -tures.
To apply cloture to (a parliamentary debate).

[French clôture, from Old French closture, probably alteration of closure, closure. See closure.]

(KLO-chuhr)

noun
The action of closing a debate by calling for an immediate vote.

verb tr.
To close a debate by cloture. [From French cloture (closure), eventually from Latin claustrum (barrier).

Usage
"A senator can challenge legislation by staging a filibuster, a maneuver to block action on an item by controlling the Senate floor for an unlimited time. A filibuster can be ended through legislative agreement, or by invoking cloture, which requires 60 votes. The Senate is evenly split, with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats." — Filibuster Vowed if Bush Seeks Arctic Oil, The New York Times, Feb 13, 2001.

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Any procedure for limiting or curtailing debate in a legislature, forcing the matter to a vote even when there are members still wanting to speak. One form in the United Kingdom is the ‘guillotine’ resolution which restricts discussion on the remaining clauses of a government bill. Used to save parliamentary time by preventing filibusters.

In the Senate, when opponents of a bill try to delay and defeat its passage, supporters of the bill will seek to vote cloture, to cut off debate and bring the bill to a vote. The House of Representatives, because of its larger number of members, made majority rule easier to achieve. In 1842, the House adopted a standing rule that no member could speak for more than one hour on any issue under debate. Subsequent five-minute rules and one-minute rules reduced even further the time that members could speak on amendments. The House Rules Committee controls how long the House will debate a bill, prohibits nongermane (irrelevant) amendments, and sets the time for a vote.

The Senate has remained more tolerant of the right to unlimited debate. Until 1917, the Senate had no effective way of shutting off a filibuster, or delaying tactics. During the closing days of the session that year, a group of isolationist senators, who were opposed to the United States entering World War I, filibustered against a bill to arm U.S. merchant ships. President Woodrow Wilson denounced them as a “little group of willful men” and called on the Senate to change its rules. The Senate responded by adopting Rule 22, which provided that a two-thirds vote of all senators could cut off debate.

Cloture difficult to achieve even with Rule 22

The Senate tried eleven times between 1927 and 1962 to invoke cloture but failed each time. Southern senators especially relied on the filibuster to block civil rights legislation. They gained allies in senators from smaller states who refused to vote for cloture because they themselves might need to filibuster to protect their states’ interests. In 1957, Senate majority leader Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat-Texas) won passage of the first civil rights legislation since Reconstruction but at the price of a severely watered-down bill. As President in 1964, Johnson called for stronger civil rights legislation. With the support of Republican minority leader Everett Dirksen, Northern Democrats and Republicans at last were able to invoke cloture and break the Southern filibuster.

In 1975, the Senate reduced the number of votes necessary for cloture from two-thirds (67) to three-fifths (60) of the 100-member Senate. Some senators wanted to change the rule to require only a simple majority (51), but Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (Democrat–Montana) objected. Mansfield believed it was important to retain some way for the minority to check the majority. By then, even moderate and liberal senators had resorted to filibusters to block legislation they found offensive.

Post-cloture tactics

Invoking cloture does not automatically stop all delaying tactics. In the 1970s, after rule changes made cloture easier to achieve, Senator James Allen (Democrat–Alabama) invented the post-cloture filibuster. Opponents load a bill up with amendments before cloture because under the terms of cloture they will have 100 hours to debate any amendment. But in 1977 Senate majority leader Robert C. Byrd (Democrat–West Virginia) arranged for the Vice President, as presiding officer, to declare a long list of such amendments out of order. But a minority of senators can still find enough loopholes in the Senate cloture rule to stall a bill long enough to amend or kill it.

See also Filibuster

Sources

• Walter J. Oleszek, Congressional Procedures and the Policy Process (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1989)

Cloture is a procedure used by the United States Senate to end a filibuster or prolonged debate and reach a final vote on the pending motion, bill, amendment, or conference report. Unlimited debate in the Senate was curtailed by the addition of cloture under Senate Rule 22, adopted in 1917. To invoke cloture, a senator must file a motion signed by at least sixteen members. Once the cloture motion is filed, only germane amendments may be offered and may only be introduced by the next legislative day.

The Senate later modified the cloture procedure to reduce the number of votes required to end debate for most matters to 60 percent of the entire Senate. Post-cloture debate was reduced to 100 hours in 1979 and then to 30 hours in 1986. Proposed changes to Senate rules still require a two-thirds supermajority vote to invoke cloture. In The period since 1975, more than 300 cloture votes have been taken, with debate successfully ended 40 percent of the time. Use of the cloture procedure reduces the effectiveness of impassioned minority viewpoints, allowing a supermajority to move forward on controversial agenda items.

Bibliography

Binder, Sarah A., and Steven S. Smith. Politics or Principle?: Filibustering in the United States Senate. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1997.

Congressional Quarterly, Guide to the Congress of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Service, 1971.

—Brian D. Posler

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The procedure by which debate is formally ended in a meeting or legislature so that a vote may be taken.

Cloture is a means of terminating a filibuster, which is a prolonged speech on the floor of the Senate designed to forestall legislative action.

(kloh-chuhr)

A vote of a legislature used to stop debate on an issue and put the issue to a vote. (See filibuster.)

IN BRIEF: n. - A rule for limiting or ending debate in a deliberative body v. - Terminate debate by calling for a vote.

Tutor's tip: After the "cloture" (a vote of Congress to end a filibuster), they voted on the "closure" (anything that shuts, closes, or ends) of the session.

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