Order of Business
of the
The United States Senate



"A trust of the greatest magnitude is committed to this Legislature–and the eyes of the world are upon you."
-Vice President John Adams, 1789

The Gavel
"The Senate is a dignified and decorous body, and its proceedings are conducted with much gravity and order."
-Charles Dickens, American Notes, 1842.

The Vice President of the United States is designated by the Constitution as the President of the Senate, and holds a tie-breaking vote. The Majority Party is charged to select a President pro tempore to preside over the Senate in the event that there is no Vice President of the United States, or the Vice President is absent from the chamber. The President pro tem may designate any member of the Senate to preside until he deems fit, or the Vice President returns.

To signify the presiding officer in-game, we use the symbolic Gavel. The presiding officer, be it the President of the Senate, the President pro tempore, or the acting President pro tempore, holds the Gavel and enforces the bylaws of the Senate and the rules of decorum. The Gavel is assumed by the President of the Senate whenever he chooses to preside. The President of the Senate can pass the Gavel to the President pro tempore whenever he chooses. The Gavel also passes automatically to the President pro tempore when the President has been absent from the chamber for 24 hours or more. The President pro tempore may also choose to pass the Gavel to another Senator of the body, who becomes, while he holds the Gavel, the acting President pro tempore. The acting President pro tempore may not pass the Gavel to anyone else, and automatically yields the Gavel back to the President or President pro tempore at their behest. If, for any reason, the presiding officer has been absent for more than 48 hours, the Senate Majority Leader must designate an acting President pro tempore, though the Senate Majority Leader should not himself act as chair at any time. If the President pro tempore is on a leave of absense, the Majority Party must designate a President pro tempore to fill the role temporarily.


Senators
"At a few yards' distance is the door of the Senate, which contains within a small space a large proportion of the celebrated men of America. Scarcely an individual is to be seen in it who has not had an active and illustrious career: The Senate is composed of eloquent advocates, distinguished generals, wise magistrates, and statesmen of note, whose arguments would do honor to the most remarkable parliamentary debates of Europe."
-Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. 1.

Two Senators are elected to the Senate by each region to serve staggered six-year terms. In the event of a vacancy, the constitution stipulates that a special election is to be held at the next general election in order to fill out the remainder of the unexpired term. Laws of the individual superregions permit the Governor or Legislature to appoint a replacement to serve until such an election can take place.

Senators officially assume their role upon taking the oath of office. That oath remains in effect until the Senator resigns, dies, is not re-elected, is expelled, or removed from office for inactivity. To resign, a Senator must inform the President of the Senate by posting their resignation on the Senate floor. The resignation is immediate and unrevokable. Under most circumstances, a Senator will not die in office, as character deaths have been regulated for the sake of the game, but if one were to occur, the post indicating the death of the character would mark the vacancy of that Senator's office. Naturally, if a Senator loses re-election, or does not seek re-election, their term expires. The Constitution permits the Senate to expel any member by a two-thirds majority vote. Upon the closing of the vote, a Senator's expulsion is immediate. If a Senator does not make an in-character post for fourteen days, that character is removed from office for inactivity. The removal is automatic, and takes place immediately once the fourteen day have elapsed, regardless of when the admin of the Senate designates that a removal has taken place.


Debate & Cloture
"The Senate of the United States is unique among all legislative bodies in the world. It is the only important chamber in which debate cannot be curbed - in which there cannot be action when a majority of members are willing and eager to act. Parliamentary obstruction - filibustering - is a political sport for which the season is always open."
-Lindsay Rogers, 'The Most Remarkable of all the Inventions of Modern Politics,' Parliamentary Affairs 3, Winter 1949.

Debate in the United States Senate is its greatest distinction from the House of Representatives. There are no time limits, no germane requirements, and no defined procedures other than any Senator who rises to speak, is recognized to speak. Debate is ended when the Senate agrees to end debate. In-game, we are forced to make things slightly more procedural, but the premise remains the same.

Bills are selected for the docket by the majority's leader, and brought up by the President or President pro tem for debate. Debate only ends when the Senate agrees, by a 3/5ths (60%) margin to end debate - also called invoking cloture. Cloture is unlike resets passed. 24 hours after debate is opened, the vote on cloture coincides with the debate, and any motions, and continues indefinately until either cloture is invoked, the bill is passed by a motion for unanimous consent, or the bill is pulled from the floor by the majority leader. Senators may vote on cloture at any time during this period. Senators may also change their vote at any time, but must notify the presiding officer of their change in a new post, and may not edit their previous vote. The presiding officer will keep a tally of the votes on cloture so that any Senator can request the current standing of cloture during debate. At such time that 3/5ths of the Senate has voted for cloture, cloture is invoked, and debate must end as soon as all outstanding motions, excepting motions to rescind, have been voted on. The 3/5ths margin is defined as 3/5ths of the Senate as whole, not simply 3/5ths of those in attendance. The "Senate as a whole" is defined as all standing members of the body not currently on a valid leave of absense.

In the case of the Federal Budget, debate is limited to 168 hours, unless the Senate agrees to extend debate.

During debate, Senators may motion to pass by unanimous consent, motion to amend, or motion to rescind. All motions, excepting the motion for unanimous consent, require a second.
A motion to pass by unanimous consent must be given at least 24 hours for objection, and passes the bill through the Senate in its current form unanimously.
A motion to amend may include amendments to any part of the bill, excepting only the name and findings, and may contain any provision themselves. Motions to amend must be given a 24 hour vote on passage, and require a majority of Senators voting in favor.
A motion to rescind is a motion on bills originating in the Senate to send them back from the relevant committee. Motions to rescind must be given a 24 hour vote on passage, and require 3/5ths of the Senate as a whole voting in favor. A motion to rescind can only be made once every 168 hours.
Motions to reconsider any business of the Senate must be made and seconded by members voting with the prevailing side within 48 hours of the question reaching a conclusion, and require a majority of Senators voting in favor. Motions to reconsider reverse a decision of the Senate on a particular order of business. Motions to reconsider may only be made once on each order of business. Motions to reconsider may not be reconsidered.
Motions to table another motion are not to be considered, as their results are inevitably redundant to that of the original motion. Motions to table legislation are not to be considered.


Voting
"To no other branch of Government has the constitution assigned powers more various or important than to the Senate. [T]o this body, only, is granted a participation in all the different powers of the Government - Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary."
-Vice President John C. Calhoun, Address to the Senate, March 4, 1825.

At least 72 hours shall be given for an up-or-down vote on legislation. Votes are closed at any time after the 72 hour mark when the presiding officer announces the tally of all current votes, or when all standing members of the body have voted. Senators who assume their office after the opening of a vote are not eligible to vote on that legislation.


Committees
"This is a Senate, a Senate of equals, of men of individual honor and personal character, and of absolute independence. We know no masters, we acknowledge no dictators. This is a hall for mutual consideration and discussion; not an arena for the exhibition of champions."
-Senator Daniel Webster, 'Second Reply to Hayne.' Senate floor speech, January 26-27, 1830.

Committees shall be presided over by a Chair, who shall be selected by the Majority Party. With the exception of these basic rules, Committees are free to oversee themselves and their business how their members see fit.

Debate will remain open for 72 hours, unless the Committee agrees to end it before, or extend it beyond that.
Votes on passage will remain open for 72 hours.
Votes on motions will remain open for 24 hours.
Motions that are made and seconded within the 72 hours of debate must be recognized to be voted on.
A Motion for unanimous consent will be recognized for 24 hours to allow for objection.
Motions to reconsider must be made and seconded by members on the prevailing side within 48 hours of the question reaching a conclusion.

THOMAS Bill Rule Addition

-Please credit your THOMAS bills to their original IRL author, even if the bill was submit to Congress IRL after the start date of this reset. IE: Do not say "I introduced the 'Kittens are Wonderful Act!'" say "Senator Enzi originally authored the 'Kittens are Wonderful Act,' but he was not able to pass it. I have taken up his cause, and reintroduced the act. I promise you, Kittens are wonderful, and they will be recognized as such under my watch." If you changed some parts of the bill, you can claim you improved it.

Though I'm not going to mandate it, I'd also like it if you included the original author's name in the bill. IE: "Senator Brooksclone submits, on behalf of former Senator Enzi, and (any Co-Sponsors IG), a bill..."

Finally, remember the Plain English Summary in your bills from THOMAS. PES is a requirement on all THOMAS bills.

Note the clarification of motions to suspend here.

Presidential Nominees

With the new cabinet system, Porthos posted: "The Five Cabinet members can not have multis and must be confirmed for their positions, which will be considered full-time, high-level administrative positions. They will not go through committee confirmations, in the interest of confirming positions in an expedited manner."

The Senate should still hold hearings on these nominees, however, as that is the most important part of a nomination process. The respective committees will be tasked with holding hearings for the Presidential nominees. These hearings will last 72 hours, and the clock starts from the time when the nominee shows up in the committee chamber (posts their opening statement). All posted questions must have a reply by the nominee (at the very least with a refusal to answer). When the hearing concludes, and all out-standing questions have been answered, the nomination moves to the Senate floor. The committee does not debate or vote on the nominee. The Senate as a whole then must debate the nominee, obtain cloture, and vote.

Suspend the Rules (Again)

Two changes to Rules Suspensions.

First, they must now be made in the Senate Floor forum, not in this main Senate forum. A big part of the Rules Suspensions is that they get lost in the cracks by being in a different forum, and people miss them.

Second, Motions to Suspend the Rules and bring to debate must now pass with half of the Senate as a whole voting in favor. Which means at least 17 Ayes are required to pass it, no matter how many Nays there are. This does not change the Motions that suspend the rules and bring to a vote, which still require 3/5ths of the Senate as a whole just like cloture.

For future quick referrence on how many seats are needed to change the makeup of committees:

16 - 19 seats = Committees split 4/4 (plus majority chair)
20 - 23 seats = Committees split 5/3 (plus majority chair)
24 - 27 seats = Committees split 6/2 (plus majority chair)
28 - 31 seats = Committees split 7/1 (plus majority chair)
32 seats = Committees split 8/0 (plus majority chair)

I felt this might be useful to have handy, should the Democrats gain anymore seats this session...

Treaties

Since it looks increasingly likely that we will be addressing a treaty here very soon, I thought I should formalize some treaty rules to conform with IG standards (thank you to the Administration for getting on me about this ).

Treaties must be submitted into the Senate hopper by the President (the President must himself post the treaty in the hopper). Senators at this time can affix their names to it as co-sponsors. The FRID committee must bring it up for debate within 72 hours of being submitted by the President, and must do so in the privacy of the FRIDster, the committee's sealed private chambers (FRID Committee Chair: Remember to ping me when you want the password on the FRIDster changed and given to you. It is YOUR job to distribute this password to the committee members in a discreet fashion. It is also your job to remind me to change the password at appropriate intervals). The FRID committee proceeds with the usual 72 hour debate and 72 hour vote. Amendments may be made and voted on during debate.

If the FRID committee approves of the treaty, it is sent to the floor for consideration by the full Senate. Debate must begin on the Treaty within 72 hours of it being discharged from Committee, and must be done in the privacy of a Closed Senate Session (SML, PPT and Vice President are able to enter the closed session forum without the password. The password will always be posted in that forum, and I will forward it to the SmL every time it changes. It is the job of the SML and SmL to distribute it to their respective caucuses in a discreet manner. WARNING: Violating the secrecy of a closed session of the Senate is treason, and IG ramifications for your characters can result if the password is given to a player who is not a Senator). The transcripts of the FRID debate will be posted in the Senate debate by me. Amendments may be made to the treaty at this time. For debate to end on a treaty, cloture - following normal cloture rules - must be invoked. A 72 hour vote on ratification will be held once cloture is invoked. To ratify the treaty, 3/5ths of the Senate as a whole must vote in the affirmative. A vote to discharge must be held proceeding the final vote, in which the Senate decides to make the transcripts of the debate from the Senate floor and committee public.

Treaties never die unless the Senate rejects ratification. If cloture is never obtained on a treaty, and the session ends, the treaty is re-submitted to the FRID Committee for immediate consideration next session.

Two corrections

Reconsideration
The updated, super-duper clarified version of Reconsideration, to (hopefully) remove all confusion for all future generations!

"Motions to reconsider any business of the Senate must be made and seconded by members voting with the prevailing side, voting present, or not voting on the original vote within 48 hours of the question reaching a conclusion, and require a majority of Senators voting in favor. Motions to reconsider reverse a decision of the Senate on a particular order of business. Motions to reconsider may only be made once on each order of business. Motions to reconsider may not be reconsidered."


Treaties
I goofed up in typing the original set up there, so note this change! It was not meant to be 3/5ths, I had cloture on my mind!

"To ratify the treaty, 2/3rd of Senators present must vote in the affirmative."

Consolidation Changes

The Senate of 32 is no more, and now a Senate of 16 marches bravely into the unknown!

Naturally, with the consolidated size, things have to change in how the Senate goes about things. The biggest difference will be in regards to committees, which will no longer be used for vetting, but will take on a more wonky role of drafting and re-writing legislation. Committees will also be shrunk to four members and the chair.

The following flowchart explains the process that bills travel through the Senate now


There are now three types of bills the Senate will address. Bills passed by the House, bills written by individual Senators, and "workshop" bills that are drafted by committees. Bills passed by the House are self-explanatory. Bills written by individual Senators are to be placed in the hopper, as ever, but will no longer be forwarded to committees. The only obstacle between bills in the hopper and the floor is the Senate Majority Leader's exclusive right to set the docket or a rules suspension vote (more on rules suspensions in a bit). Workshop bills are the new feature here, and should be the main focus of Committees's members going forward.

A workshop bill is a drafted by one of the committees. There's no limitation on how the drafting procedure works. An individual member of the committee can present a bill for the other committee members to agree to put the committee's name on, or the members can discuss ideas and write a bill as they go. To qualify as a workshop bill, the legislation must have the names engrossed (as authors, not co-sponsors) of a majority of committee members (be advised that if membership changes and the bill has not been discharged yet, the bill must meet the requirements of the committee as it stands, so former members names do not count). The scope of the bill must be within the committee's mandate (DAC should not be drafting bills about our military involvement in Korea, just as FRID should not be concerning itself with the social security trustfund). Committees should name discussions on workshop bills in the drafting process something like "JRC Workshop on Judicial Silliness." Committees may handle these workshops as they please (whether that is voting on motions on how bills should read or be changed, or trying to do things by consensus and acclamation). Once the committee members feel the workshop has finished drafting the bill, members may motion to discharge. There is no debate or vote on these bills. If the motion to discharge passes, the bill is forwarded in its current state to the SML where it is automatically placed on the docket. Therein lies the important reason why Senators need to utilize this process: It is the one mechanism that allows Senators to control the agenda of the floor, overriding the SML's monopoly.

Committees retain one other important legislative function: Correcting committed bills. Inidividual bills brought up on the Senate floor may be sent to committees if the Senate feels they need significant improvements. The motion to rescind is now the motion to commit, which is significantly easier to pass, needing only a majority of those voting. The previous restriction that the motion may be made only once every 168 hours on a piece of legislation still stands, however. Once a committee feels it has sufficiently corrected a commited bill, that bill is forwarded to the SML's office for the SML to place on the docket again at his discretion. Members be weary of using the motion to commit to play partisan games. Motions to commit cannot be made on workshop bills, or bills that have already been commited once before.

Rules suspension votes now lose some of their meaning, since now there is no rule barring any bill from getting on the docket. But, for the sake of conveniance, we're going to keep the name "rules suspension." Now, any bill in the Hopper or in the SML's office (including bills passed by the House) can have a motion to suspend the rules and bring them up for debate or vote. The same restrictions apply in that rules suspension votes for debate require 1/2 the Senate as a whole to pass. Rules suspension to bring to a vote require 3/5ths of the Senate as a whole, as they are effectively the same as cloture.

In addition to everything above, committees are still responsible for hearings on presidential nominations. I will also try and accomidate each committee to hold at least one hearing on the topic of its choice each session. Also, committees still have legislation in their folders from the last two sessions, which they can address in the normal way, allowing them to transition slowly from vetters to drafters.


Changes to cloture

No longer will any type of absence be taken into account for cloture. All cloture votes must obtain 10 votes in the affirmative. If a seat is vacant due to resignation or removal for more than 72 hours, the "Senate as a whole" qualifyer will take that vacancy into account for cloture. With a 16 person Senate, I no longer fear vast swaths of the membership being absent and preventing anything from moving on the floor as I once did.