What is a cloture again?

[Hennessy C.]

What is a cloture again? Like what does it do? How does it effect us?

[Tatyana McAfee]

Tatyana,

 

it's like when they come to a conlution they wrap every thing up i think hey sombody am i even close to being right?

[Ms. D]

In the Senate, to delay a vote on a bill, sometimes Senators
FILLIBUSTER (literally means "talking a bill to death" - remember the
Senator who read from the phone book?). In order to stop a
fillibuster, 60 Senators have to vote to close discussion... it's
called cloture! Think of it like CLOSURE on the debate... but with a
T! :)

Also remember that this can't happen in the House because they have
set rules about how long debates can happen.. since the House is so
much bigger than the Senate (435 > 100), they have to have rules for
these things, whereas the Senate doesn't.

[Ms. D]

And to your question of how it affects us....

A great example is the current healthcare debate going on right NOW in
Congress. Obama really wants to pass a universal healthcare law... he
HAD 60 Democratic senators on board. This would mean that even if the
Republicans wanted to delay the bill by fillibustering, the Dems could
override it with a cloture and vote the bill through. However, since
Kennedy died and was (as of last night) replaced by a Republican
Senator from Massachusetts, the Senate is no longer filibuster-
proof.... so now it's unlikely that Obama can get his bill passed.
Does that make sense?

[Tatyana McAfee]

oh yeah cloture is what brings a debat to an end.