POL 411 Paper: Regular Order in the Senate
POL 411 Paper: Regular Order in The Senate
By Darsh Suresh
The United States Senate has rules and regulations, most of which have been in place since its establishment over 200 years ago. These rules have governed the way the senate interacts with other branches of government, and the way it passes legislation. Specifically, The process of unanimous consent is used often in the United States senate. A senator will ask for unanimous consent of the body to set aside a specific rule or procedure, with the purpose of expediting the senator’s goals. The request allows the Senator to bypass senate rules. The request for unanimous consent is granted only if no senator objects. If even one senator objects, the unanimous consent request is rejected. When a request for unanimous consent is rejected, the senate is considered to be under regular order, where a majority cannot be used to pass most legislation or, for that matter, do anything. Typically for nominal and small requests, this process is not time-consuming and is never objected to. However, for many larger and contentious bills, regular order is a tactical move with the intention or delaying or derailing legislation from passing. Under regular order, 60 votes are needed to proceed to an up-or-down vote on almost all legislation. One exception would be Budget Reconciliation. In the ever more partisan 111th congress, the request for ‘reuglar order’ have skyrocketed. Republicans claim that the lack of regular order in the senate spends far too little time on debate. According to a report by The Washington Times, in 2009, calls for regular order have increased by ten-fold. (Ref 1).
There are several examples of this procedure being used by members of both parties. First, in February of 2009, near the start of the 111th congress, the Senate was ending its debate on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as the stimulus bill). Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) seeks to call the manager’s amendment on the day of the vote of the Recovery Act (Stimulus Bill) . Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) objects, noting that several republican amendments did not make it into the bill. Grassley makes clear that “only one member can reject.” Because of this objection to the manager’s amendment, a vote to invoke cloture was needed to pass the final bill. The manager’s amendment is usually composed of amendments agreed to by both sides in advance, but in this case, only amendments which GOP Sens. Collins, Snowe, and Specter agreed to were put in. This assured that the Democrats would have enough votes to invoke cloture and to eventually pass the bill.
The United States Senate has rules and regulations, most of which have been in place since its establishment over 200 years ago. These rules have governed the way the senate interacts with other branches of government, and the way it passes legislation. Specifically, The process of unanimous consent is used often in the United States senate. A senator will ask for unanimous consent of the body to set aside a specific rule or procedure, with the purpose of expediting the senator’s goals. The request allows the Senator to bypass senate rules. The request for unanimous consent is granted only if no senator objects. If even one senator objects, the unanimous consent request is rejected. When a request for unanimous consent is rejected, the senate is considered to be under regular order, where a majority cannot be used to pass most legislation or, for that matter, do anything. Typically for nominal and small requests, this process is not time-consuming and is never objected to. However, for many larger and contentious bills, regular order is a tactical move with the intention or delaying or derailing legislation from passing. Under regular order, 60 votes are needed to proceed to an up-or-down vote on almost all legislation. One exception would be Budget Reconciliation. In the ever more partisan 111th congress, the request for ‘reuglar order’ have skyrocketed. Republicans claim that the lack of regular order in the senate spends far too little time on debate. According to a report by The Washington Times, in 2009, calls for regular order have increased by ten-fold. (Ref 1).
There are several examples of this procedure being used by members of both parties. First, in February of 2009, near the start of the 111th congress, the Senate was ending its debate on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as the stimulus bill). Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) seeks to call the manager’s amendment on the day of the vote of the Recovery Act (Stimulus Bill) . Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) objects, noting that several republican amendments did not make it into the bill. Grassley makes clear that “only one member can reject.” Because of this objection to the manager’s amendment, a vote to invoke cloture was needed to pass the final bill. The manager’s amendment is usually composed of amendments agreed to by both sides in advance, but in this case, only amendments which GOP Sens. Collins, Snowe, and Specter agreed to were put in. This assured that the Democrats would have enough votes to invoke cloture and to eventually pass the bill.
Another example of this procedure being used was last month, during a debate on whether or not to extend unemployment benefits for another month. Once considered a non-controversial measure, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) decided that he would object to the amendment because he did not believe it was paid for properly. Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, but Sen. Bunning immediately objects when Sen. Reid asks for the senate to take up unanimously consider the Extension Bill. Despite being only one, Sen. Bunning is able to object. Under regular orders, Sen. Reid can no longer speak and must yield to Sen. Bunning to explain his objection. This can happen regardless of the Senator’s status; the Majority Leader or President Pro Temp must yield to the most junior senator to explain the objection. This past week, the episode repeated itself when Sen. Coburn (R-OK) decided to again object when the same issue was brought up this month. However in both instances, the bill was eventually passed when the democrats got several republican votes.
However, Democrats have also used calls for regular order as well, even though they are in the majority. In this clip Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the budget committee, objected to several amendments to the Senate Health Care Bill offered by Senator John Barrasso (R-WY). Baucus called the amendment “a stunt” and objected to the amendments over 5 times. The chair subsequently called for regular order. The Senate eventually voted down the amendment. Barrasso could not stall the passage of the bill with his amendment, in this particular case.
Finally, an example from just a few days ago, on April 21. Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) wanted to confirm 101 nominees, the majority of which were non controversial. Initially there were no republican members to object. However Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) comes to the floor and subsequently objects. Sen. Mccaskill (D-MO) takes over for Sen. Whitehouse. Sen. Kyl keeps on objecting, and objecting to all the nominations. This video is not from the C-SPAN video library, but still only shows C-SPAN compiled proceedings from the Senate Floor. Most of these nominations were for minor positions, yet the republicans could object with only a single senator. Sen. Kyl objects over 50 times. Sen. Mccaskill then reads every single name one last time in a crescendo-like fashion , and unsurprisingly, Sen. Kyl objects, blocking the nominations indefinitely. The rules call for senators to be able to set holds on certain nominations; this is permitted under regular order.
This phenomenon of ‘regular order’ in the senate was criticized by many after its use increased over the past few years. Some say that one party can obstruct major legislation with only 41 percent of the votes, and that 41 senators filibustering legislation could theoretically represent only 24% of the country. However, in response to this members of both parties including Sen. Byrd (D-WV) and Sen. Dodd (D-CT) have repeatedly spoken out against it. Sen. Dodd went so far as to say changing the rules would be foolish. The justification is that the Senate was designed to give voice to the minority, and to prevent one party from rushing legislation through. In order to change this rule, 67 votes would be needed, which would be unlikely, since the democrats only have 59 votes. In conclusion, due to long held rules in the senate, passing legislation in the senate is significantly more complicated in the senate, than in the house due to long held rules regarding debate.
References
1) Washington Times, Feb 2009. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/10/calls-for-regular-order-grow-louder/
2) C-SPAN Glossary. http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/regorder.htm
3) “Dodd: Changing Filibuster Rules Would be Foolish” The Hill, Feb 2010.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/81429-dodd-changing-filibuster-rules-would-be-foolish
4) "GOP Objects and Objects..." Huffington Post, Apr 2010.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/21/gop-objects-and-objects-a_n_546064.html
References
1) Washington Times, Feb 2009. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/10/calls-for-regular-order-grow-louder/
2) C-SPAN Glossary. http://www.c-span.org/guide/congress/glossary/regorder.htm
3) “Dodd: Changing Filibuster Rules Would be Foolish” The Hill, Feb 2010.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/81429-dodd-changing-filibuster-rules-would-be-foolish
4) "GOP Objects and Objects..." Huffington Post, Apr 2010.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/21/gop-objects-and-objects-a_n_546064.html
