riders: bill amendments
filibusters: attempts to stop legislation review and vote
The Rules Committe
Filibusters, or even just the threat of filibusters, by Southern senators blocked the bills. In this time period, just after the Great Depression, the very idea of a filibuster was enough to kill the anti-lynching bills of the 1930's.
filibusters
The media dubbed them "Freedom Riders."
Single senator can block legislation in the Senate via a filibuster - continuing the debate indefinitely. It requires a 3/5 majority to end a filibuster (60 votes in the current 100 senator US-Senate). When the bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, the "Southern Bloc" of 18 Democrat Senators invoked the filibuster to prevent a vote on it. After 54 days, a substitute bill was introduced. Eventually a cloture (vote to end debate) was passed and the substitute bill was passed by the Senate on June 19.
prevent filibusters
When one party in the US Senate filibusters a bill, it takes 60 votes to end the debate. Long, sometimes irrelevant speeches are a common feature during filibusters.
In the United States Senate, there needs to be 60 Senators who vote to end all discussion or debate about a given bill or issue and have it move to a floor vote. The United States House of Representatives do not allow filibusters, since each member has a time limit on how much they can speak (or stall) about a piece of legislation. Filibusters can occur in the Senate for as long as there is are no group of 60 Senators who vote to stop them.
"Floor consideration" can be considered synonymous with "debate" or "discussion on the floor."
motion to end debate
The House Rules Committee places the bill on a calendar for floor debate in the House or the Senate.
If someone set the length of the floor debate, it would be the Speaker of the House.
It is the United States House Committee on Rules that governs floor debate. It is often referred to simply as the Rules Committee.
Floor Action
Floor Action
The groups in Congress that study and debate bills before they to to a floor vote are called committees.
cloture