“Entrenchment” of Senate Procedure and the “Nuclear Option” for Change: Possible Proceedings and Their Implications

Summary

Senate procedure permits most matters to be decided by a simple majority of Senators voting (with a quorum present). Yet Senate procedure generally lacks means for a simple majority to limit consideration and proceed to a vote. As a result, Senate minorities can attempt to block proposals by preventing a vote from occurring, a practice known as filibustering. Filibuster opponents have long sought to institute rules permitting a voting majority to limit consideration, most recently, in relation to judicial nominations. The Senate has seldom been able to adopt such limits, however, because any such proposal is itself subject to filibuster. In addition, the Senate has held that its existing procedures remain continuously in effect, which prevents it from considering a change proposal under limits more stringent than those already in effect. In this way, the existing procedures that lack consideration limits tend to entrench themselves against their own change.

Advocates of majority consideration limits have often sought ways to assure the ability of the Senate to reach a vote on procedural changes. Inasmuch as such a course of action would break through the obstacles posed by existing procedures, it has been called a “nuclear option.” A “nuclear option” would presumably either make novel use of existing procedures or engage in ones previously not recognized in Senate practice. The plan most often discussed has been to raise a point of order asserting that the Senate must be able to reach a vote on nominations (or procedural changes) in order to exercise effectively its constitutional “advice and consent” power (or rulemaking power). By sustaining such a point of order, the chair would establish precedent for limiting consideration of those matters. Opponents of the ruling could appeal, and could attempt to filibuster to prevent a vote on the appeal, but the Senate could confirm the ruling by adopting a nondebatable motion to table the appeal.

Under established procedure, however, only the Senate itself has authority to settle points of order in ways that alter precedent or interpret the Constitution. The chair is to follow precedent in ruling, and is to submit points of order raised under the Constitution, or where no precedent exists. If a point of order is submitted, however, or a ruling against a point of order is appealed, the point of order can be sustained only by vote, and the vote might be blocked by filibuster. Tabling the question in this situation would have the effect of affirming previous practice. Only certain additional limits on consideration of a point of order raised while another is pending might afford means of overcoming this difficulty.

Under most conditions, the Senate might be unable to reach a vote on a procedural question that would institute consideration limits, except by setting aside the principle that the chair adheres to precedent, or that the rules remain always in effect. Once these principles were set aside, however, it might become possible for any voting majority of the Senate to institute further procedural changes in other subsequent situations. In the past, both the Senate and the House have ultimately always declined to institute change by accepting standards that would permit this result. This report will not be updated.