Top Ten Ways to Bring the Senate to its Knees

By Ian Millhiser, policy analyst at American Progress

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.

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. 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,” 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.

Obstruction tactic No. 4—Forced Debate on Matters that Have Already Been Decided

Even when a filibuster is broken, the delay doesn’t end. Once 60 senators break a filibuster—a process known as “cloture”—the dissenters can still force up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate per broken filibuster. To pass a single bill, the Senate may need to waste 30 hours after breaking the filibuster on the motion to proceed, another 30 hours after breaking the filibuster on the motion to end debate, and another 90 hours after breaking the three filibusters before the bill goes to conference committee. This adds up to nearly an entire week every time the Senate passes a single bill.

Obstruction tactic No. 5—Secret Holds

Because unanimous consent is required to avoid a filibuster and post-cloture debate, just one senator can place a “hold” on any senate business by indicating their willingness to withhold such consent. Worse, Senate customs have evolved to allow “secret holds,” where a senator tells his party leader to place the hold and the leader blocks progress on a matter without ever revealing which senator is responsible for this obstruction.

Senators have also begun to use these holds simply to prevent business from moving quickly on the Senate floor.

Obstruction tactic No. 6—Forcing a Roll Call Vote on Everything

The Senate frequently uses relatively quick voice votes to conduct routine procedural business and move uncontroversial bills and nominations. The Constitution, however, permits just one fifth of the senators present for a vote to demand a much more time consuming roll call vote. By drawing out the time required for each vote, a small minority of the senators can gradually run down the Senate’s clock.

Obstruction tactic No. 7—Frivolous Points of Order

The tactic of forcing time-consuming roll call votes works best when used with another tactic to maximize the number of votes taken. One easy way a senator can force a large number of votes is by constantly raising “points of order” alleging that the majority’s actions violate the Senate rules.

Obstruction tactic No. 8—Frivolous Amendments

In most cases, any senator can offer any amendment to any bill under consideration, regardless of whether or not that amendment is germane to the underlying legislation. Accordingly, senators can try to delay or block legislation by overwhelming the amendments process or by filing “poison pill” amendments, which are likely to pass but which also are likely to cause senators who would otherwise vote for the underlying bill to turn against it.

Obstruction tactic No. 9—Reading Amendments Aloud

Unless every single senator agrees to dispense with this requirement, each amendment must be read aloud after a senator offers it. In some cases, these amendments can be hundreds of pages long and require many hours to finish reading.

Obstruction tactic No. 10—Committee Shenanigans

In addition to the minority’s immense power to delay progress on the Senate floor, each committee has its own set of rules which can be abused to prevent business from moving forward. Many committees, for example, require that a certain number of senators be present before a bill or nomination can be reported out of the committee. The Judiciary Committee’s rules even provide that “Eight Members of the Committee, including at least two Members of the minority, shall constitute a quorum for the purpose of transacting business.” Thus, it is possible for the minority to stall all business in that committee simply by refusing to show up for work.

 Reprinted with permission.