Senate Committee -- Without Democrats -- Votes to Limit Filibusters

WASHINGTON — A Senate committee with all its Democratic members absent voted to limit filibusters (search) of President Bush's judicial nominees (search) Tuesday, a move Republicans hope will usher future federal judges through the Senate faster, even if Democrats want to stop them.

Democrats oppose changing Senate filibuster rules for judicial nominees, but Republicans have a one-vote majority on the Senate Rules Committee (search) and expected to win Tuesday's committee vote in any case. Democrats are expected to fight the measure on the Senate floor.

The Rules Committee officially voted 10-0 for the measure, which would reduce the number of senators needed to force a vote on a judicial nominee with each successive vote until only a 51-member majority is needed.

Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota had another commitment he had to attend to, and Democrats did not organize a boycott of the vote, spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer said.

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott, R-Miss., noted that all 10 GOP members showed up for the morning vote.

"It's hard to get people to a meeting between 9:30 and 10," Lott said. "We got ours here. The others were going to come but didn't get here by the time we finished our work."

All nine Senate Democrats -- Daschle, ranking Rules Committee Democrat Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Dianne Feinstein of California, Charles Schumer of New York, John Breaux of Louisiana, Mark Dayton of Minnesota and Richard Durbin of Illinois -- missed the meeting.

"There's no mystery in what will happen with today's vote," said Schumer in a written statement. "But when it comes to the floor, I hope and believe that at least a few of my friends from across the aisle will see the light."

Senate Panel Votes to Limit Filibusters
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By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A Senate committee with all its Democratic members absent voted to limit filibusters of President Bush (news - web sites)'s judicial nominees Tuesday, a move Republicans hope will usher future federal judges through the Senate faster, even if Democrats want to stop them.

Democrats oppose changing Senate filibuster rules for judicial nominees, but Republicans have a one-vote majority on the Senate Rules Committee and expected to win Tuesday's committee vote in any case. Democrats are expected to fight the measure on the Senate floor.

The Rules Committee officially voted 10-0 for the measure, which would reduce the number of senators needed to force a vote on a judicial nominee with each successive vote until only a 51-member majority is needed.

Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota had another commitment he had to attend to, and Democrats did not organize a boycott of the vote, spokeswoman Ranit Schmelzer said.

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott, R-Miss., noted that all 10 GOP members showed up for the morning vote.

"It's hard to get people to a meeting between 9:30 and 10," Lott said. "We got ours here. The others were going to come but didn't get here by the time we finished our work."

All nine Senate Democrats — Daschle, ranking Rules Committee Democrat Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Dianne Feinstein of California, Charles Schumer of New York, John Breaux of Louisiana, Mark Dayton of Minnesota and Richard Durbin of Illinois — missed the meeting.

"There's no mystery in what will happen with today's vote," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y. in a written statement. "But when it comes to the floor, I hope and believe that at least a few of my friends from across the aisle will see the light."

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had proposed easing the Senate's filibuster rule, which Democrats have used to block President Bush's nominations of two federal judges. Such procedural delays can be ended now only with the votes of 60 of the Senate's 100 members, a margin that Republicans have failed to muster in the case of the judges.

Frist said he didn't know when he would bring the measure to the full Senate.

"Filibusters are so unfair to each individual senator, unfair to the nominees, unfair to the president and unfair to the Constitution that we must continue to use all avenues to reverse this inexcusable precedent that the Democrats are trying to set," Frist said.

___

The bill number is S. Res. 138.

On the Net:

For bill text: http://thomas.loc.gov

To amend rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate relating to the consideration of nominations requiring the advice and consent of the Senate. (Introduced in Senate)

SRES 138 IS

108th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. RES. 138
To amend rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate relating to the consideration of nominations requiring the advice and consent of the Senate.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

May 9, 2003
Mr. FRIST (for himself, Mr. MILLER, Mr. MCCONNELL, Mr. STEVENS, Mr. SANTORUM, Mr. KYL, Mrs. HUTCHISON, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. LOTT, Mr. HATCH, Mr. CORNYN, and Mr. CHAMBLISS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration

RESOLUTION
To amend rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate relating to the consideration of nominations requiring the advice and consent of the Senate.

Resolved, That rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate is amended--

(1) in paragraph (2), by striking `Notwithstanding' and inserting `Except as provided by paragraph 3 and notwithstanding'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

`3. (a) The provisions of this paragraph shall apply to the considerations of nominations requiring the advice and consent of the Senate.

`(b)(1) Notwithstanding the provisions of rule II or rule IV or any other rule of the Senate and after a nomination requiring the advice and consent of the Senate has been pending before the Senate for at least 12 hours, a motion signed by 16 Senators to bring to a close the debate on that nomination may be presented to the Senate and the Presiding Officer, or clerk at the direction of the Presiding Officer, shall at once state the motion to the Senate, and 1 hour after the Senate meets on the following calendar day but 1, he shall lay the motion before the Senate and direct that the clerk call the roll, and upon the ascertainment that a quorum is present, the Presiding Officer shall, without debate, submit to the Senate by a yea-and-nay vote the question: `Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close?'.

`(2) If the question in clause (1) is agreed to by three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn then the nomination pending before the Senate shall be the unfinished business to the exclusion of all other business until disposed of.

`(3) After cloture is invoked, no Senator shall be entitled to speak in all more than 1 hour on the nomination pending before the Senate and it shall be the duty of the Presiding Officer to keep the time of each Senator who speaks. No dilatory motion shall be in order. Points of order and appeals from the decision of the Presiding Officer shall be decided without debate.

`(4) After no more than 30 hours of consideration of the nomination on which cloture has been invoked, the Senate shall proceed, without any further debate on any question, to vote on the final disposition thereof to the exclusion of all motions, except a motion to table, or to reconsider and one quorum call on demand to establish the presence of a quorum (and motions required to establish a quorum) immediately before the final vote begins. The 30 hours may be increased by the adoption of a motion, decided without debate, by a three-fifths affirmative vote of the Senators duly chosen and sworn, and any such time thus agreed upon shall be equally divided between and controlled by the Majority and Minority Leaders or their designees. However, only one motion to extend time, specified above, may be made in any 1 calendar day.

`(5) Notwithstanding other provisions of this rule, a Senator may yield all or part of his 1 hour to the majority or minority floor managers of the nomination or to the Majority or Minority Leader, but each Senator specified shall not have more than 2 hours so yielded to him and may in turn yield such time to other Senators.

`(6) Notwithstanding any other provision of this rule, any Senator who has not used or yielded at least 10 minutes, is, if he seeks recognition, guaranteed up to 10 minutes, inclusive, to speak only.

`(c)(1) If, upon a vote taken on a motion presented pursuant to subparagraph (b), the Senate fails to invoke cloture with respect to a nomination pending before the Senate, subsequent motions to bring debate to a close may be made with respect to the same nomination. It shall not be in order to file subsequent cloture motions on any nomination, except by unanimous consent, until the previous motion has been disposed of.

`(2) Such subsequent motions shall be made in the manner provided by, and subject to the provisions of, subparagraph (b), except that the affirmative vote required to bring to a close debate upon that nomination shall be reduced by 3 votes on the second such motion, and by 3 additional votes on each succeeding motion, until the affirmative vote is reduced to a number equal to or less than an affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn. The required vote shall then be a simple majority.'.

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