Once H.R. 10, our hypothetical legislation has passed the House, a final copy of the legislation as adopted (including all amendments approved) is sent to the Senate. In parliamentary terms, the measure ceases to be called legislation and is now called an Act. An engrossed version of the legislation is signed by the Clerk of the House and is delivered to the Senate by a "reading clerk" while the Senate is in session. In one of the rare truly formal proceedings of Congress, the reading clerk (accompanied by an officer of the Senate) is recognized by the Presiding Officer of the Senate. The clerk bows and then states that the House has passed the legislation and requests the concurrence of the Senate.
The Presiding Officer (following the recommendation of the Senate Parliamentarian) then refers the legislation to the appropriate Senate committee, where it again goes through the same hearing and mark-up process described above. Any Senator can object to referring the legislation to committee, in which case it is placed on the Senate calendar. This tactic is occasionally used where proponents of the legislation fear the committee referral process may be too time-consuming or if they feel the measure is likely to be killed in committee.
A Senator may at any time move to discharge a committee from consideration of legislation. Contrary to the House, this motion does not have to be supported by a petition. If the motion receives a majority vote, the committee is discharged, and the bill is placed on the Senate calendar.
There is no functional Senate equivalent of the House Rules Committee. The basic principle in the Senate is one of unlimited debate. With limited exceptions, any Senator may speak without time limit on any subject once he is recognized. So that this principle does not result in a breakdown of Senate activity, most legislation -- especially those which are controversial -- are only brought up for floor debate if a unanimous consent agreement (or UC) has been reached between the majority and minority party leaders. These agreements are similar to the rules adopted for House floor debate and may govern the length of debate and which amendments may be offered. They differ from House rules in that one Senator can successfully prevent a unanimous consent agreement from being reached. Without a unanimous consent agreement, extra time must be set aside for legislation's consideration. In fact, many measures are never brought up for debate -- especially late in a legislative session -- if a unanimous consent agreement cannot be achieved.
Any legislation on the Senate calendar may be called up for debate upon a Senator's motion to proceed to consideration of the legislation. No time limits can be set on the debate of this motion. For controversial legislation, the critical vote is often on the motion to proceed and not the vote on the legislation itself. For example, a Senator opposing legislation may vote against the motion to proceed. However, if that motion passes, the same Senator may vote in favor of final passage of the legislation because he knows it is likely to pass and does not (for political reasons) want to be recorded as opposing passage of the legislation. In effect, this Senator can claim he voted for legislation that he actually tried to defeat.
There are only two calendars in the Senate. The Calendar of Business contains all legislation, while the Executive Calendar is reserved for treaties and nominations.
Senate floor procedure is much less rigid than in the House. The general mode of operation is to dispense with the rules and operate by unanimous consent. The Senate's legislative day begins with a prayer and a reading of the Journal (the official record of the previous legislative day's proceedings). As with many Senate procedures and rules, reading of the Journal is usually dispensed with by unanimous consent. Legislative days are concluded when the Senate adjourns.
If it is a new legislative day, the Senate next goes into a two-hour period called the morning hour (even if it occurs in the afternoon). At this time, morning business is conducted, including receiving communications from the President or from executive branch departments, messages from the House, petitions from any of the various States, and reports from the Senate's committees. Senators also introduce legislation during the morning business period. Legislative business is usually not conducted during this period. During the second half of this period, however, legislation can be considered if the Senate gives its unanimous consent to take up the bill without debate. More commonly, the Senate concludes morning business and then proceeds to consider legislation.
On days when the Senate is meeting following a recess (rather than adjournment), there is no morning hour. In these instances (which are frequent), the leadership requests unanimous consent for a period in which morning business can be conducted. When the Senate meets following a recess, the legislative day actually continues over a period of two or more calendar days.
Upon completion of morning business, the Calendar is called. This is a procedure for calling up non-controversial legislation. The Senate usually dispenses with the call of the calendar by unanimous consent. The Majority Leader calls up legislation on which he wants the Senate to vote, regardless of their position on the calendar. In fact, any Senator who gains recognition from the Presiding Officer may call up legislation whether or not it is on the calendar.
Senate procedures make it harder to bottle-up legislation in committee than is the case in the House. They also give the leadership less control over what legislation may come to the floor. Balancing this looseness of procedure is the fact that any Senator opposed to legislation brought up in this manner can filibuster (or speak against the bill) for as long as he or she wishes. Thus, it is highly unlikely for any controversial legislation to be brought up unless the Senate has adopted a unanimous consent agreement or is prepared for what is politely referred to as "extended discussion" of legislation. The threat of a filibuster is never taken lightly. At the very least, it inconveniences Senators by forcing late-night or (in now rare cases) round-the-clock sessions. At its worst, it can prevent the Senate from getting any other business accomplished.
When the Senate has completed its morning business and has disposed of any pending non-controversial legislation, it proceeds to take up other pending items. The first step in Senate floor consideration of legislation is a motion to proceed to consideration of the legislation. Unless there is a unanimous consent agreement to the contrary, there are no time limits on debating this motion. Thus, any Senator has an opportunity to filibuster the motion to proceed. If a filibuster takes place, 16 Senators can file a cloture petition to limit debate. Once filed, this petition must lay over for two calendar days. At that time, it must receive the votes of sixty Senators to be adopted. If this process of invoking cloture succeeds, the motion to proceed must come up for a final vote after no more than 36 hours of debate. However, there is no need to use a motion to proceed if there has already been a unanimous consent agreement that the bill be brought up for debate.
If the motion to proceed passes, the legislation is brought up for Senate consideration. Unless there is a unanimous consent agreement limiting debate, the legislation can be filibustered. This is so even if there was an unsuccessful effort to filibuster the motion to proceed. The prospect of two filibusters and the potential of two hundred hours of debate on a measure is enough to ensure that most controversial legislation is brought up only under unanimous consent agreements.
When the Senate proceeds to consideration of legislation, amendments can be offered. Unless the unanimous consent agreement provides otherwise, there is no requirement that the amendments be germane to the legislation. Thus, an amendment on housing can be offered to education legislation. The exception is appropriations bills for which amendments proposing substantive legislation are prohibited unless two-thirds of the Senate suspends this rule. (The rule, in effect, requires that appropriations bills contain only appropriations and not changes or additions to other laws.) Amendments need not be offered in any particular order, but Senate procedural rules govern such technical issues as limiting how many amendments may be offered to an amendment and how many times a section of legislation can be amended. Unless stated otherwise in the unanimous consent agreement, Senators are not required to give any advance notice of their intention to offer an amendment, nor does the amendment need to be printed before it is offered.
As in the House, debate on legislation and all amendments is controlled by two floor managers. The managers are usually the chairman of the committee which reported the legislation and the ranking minority party member of that committee.
Voting in the Senate is by one of two methods. Under a voice vote, the Presiding Officer calls for the "yeas and nays" and declares which side has prevailed. One-fifth of those Senators present can demand a recorded vote, which requires that a clerk read the name of each Senator and record his or her vote. There is no electronic voting in the Senate.
In most cases, a simple majority of Senators present and voting is required for passage. In the Senate, a quorum consists of fifty-one Senators. Any Senator may suggest the absence of a quorum, whereupon a Senate clerk begins to read the roll of Senators' names. (Often, such a quorum call is merely a delaying tactic used during Senate floor debate, rather than a vote, to buy time while a Senator comes to the floor to speak on an issue. When the Senator arrives, the Senator who requested the quorum call will ask unanimous consent to rescind the order for the quorum call).
If the quorum call is allowed to proceed to its conclusion and fifty-one Senators have not answered to their names, the Presiding Officer directs the Sergeant-At-Arms to request and, if necessary, compel the attendance of absent Senators. This is sometimes referred to as a live quorum call. Only when at least 51 Senators have appeared in the Chamber may the Senate continue its business (whether debate or voting).
Following final passage, any Senator who voted for the legislation or who abstained from voting is given an opportunity to offer a motion to reconsider. (If the measure is passed by voice vote, any Senator can make this motion.) Normally, this motion is followed by a motion to table the motion to reconsider. Passage of such a tabling motion assures that the legislation cannot be reconsidered by the Senate. However, if the tabling motion fails and the motion to reconsider is passed, the Senate reverses the action by which it passed the legislation, and it is reopened for further debate and voting.
Assuming that our hypothetical bill, H.R. 10, is on export controls, it is possible that the bill passed by the Senate bears the same number (whether or not the text of the bill has been changed). In many cases, however, the Senate will pass legislation bearing a Senate number (S. 543, for example) on the same subject as H.R. 10. If this happens, just before final passage, a Senator can move to substitute the text of S. 543 for the text of H.R. 10, with the vote on final passage taken on the House bill number but the Senate bill text. This process simplifies the next stage of the legislative process in which a "conference committee" meets to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation.
Once passed, the Secretary of the Senate prepares an engrossed version of the bill. Together with the House-engrossed legislation, it is sent to the House with a message indicating the action the Senate has taken and requesting the House to concur in any changes the Senate has made in the legislation.
Next Chapter - Zone 5
