[William McKinley]

The HTML resulting from the PDF is ugly- I recommend reading it from the source site.

Some of the interesting things.

1. Once an item is called, it will come to the vote by the end of the legislative day unless it is tabled.
2. A legislative day can continue over many calendar days if Senators speak long enough.
3. During the debate, each Senator can only give a maximum of two speeches. If they yield the floor, that ends the speech they are giving.
4. Quorum calls can be made at any time. If there is not a quorum, the options are to adjourn (ending the legislative day, letting the process start over) or to have the Sgt. At Arms take steps to bring a quorum to the floor.
5. 60 votes are needed for cloture. This puts the onus on the proponents, since they need to keep their people there to maintain a quorum while the filibustering side only needs to have whoever is speaking be there.
6. There is an exception to that need for 60 votes for cloture. Under Rule XXII, an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Senators present and voting is required to invoke cloture on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules.

Consider the last two items together. One of the difficulties in stopping a filibuster is you need to have your side there to retain a quorum, but the other side only needs to have the one speaking. But that is by Senate rule. A Senate rule could be changed, by introducing a rule change and invoking cloture on it. Of course it would be filibustered, but to break the filibuster you would not need 60 votes but rather a quorum and 2/3 of those present. This would force the Democrats to be present as well as the Republicans, to prevent the rule from being changed.

Just an idea.

[William McKinley]

I should have added-

There is no need for a cloture vote if the debate ends because everyone has exhausted their two allowed speeches during the given legislative day. Once there is no further allowed debate, there is a vote on the motion.

[ken5050]

FYI

[ken5050]

Really interesting idea.....we shall see.....

[Howlin]

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, WM.

[mabelkitty]

Very good. Now how long will it be before the "cave" men come in deny it.

snicker snicker

[killbuckner]

I missed the first and most important item on your list. I didn't see where it said that "Once an item is called, it will come to the vote by the end of the legislative day unless it is tabled". Could you point out that section to me? I read it fast and just missed that part.

[yoe]

Thanks so much for this. I wish or really think Frist ought to hand every Democrat the Washington phonebook and tell them to start reading! Keep phoning, any Senator will do and tell them this sort of politics is not helping America.

[Fred Mertz]

Thanks for posting this and for your addtional comments. I've skimmed and will come back to this later.

[mrsmith]

From the "it's always something department":

"...the chair has interpreted the word 'day' to mean only a calendar day in executive session but it can mean legislative day in legislative session, an interpretation that could affect implementation of the two speech rule under Rule XIX. "

http://frist.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=1419&Month=6&Year=2003

I think they're going to have to amend cloture.