The United States Senate operates on the democratic principle of majority rule. In an attempt to control what measures pass through the Senate, minority senators may decide to filibuster, or hold the floor and speak for any amount of time, in order to obstruct legislative action. Filibusters, once a rare and extraordinary practice, have become quite common in the United State Senate. Cloture seems to have become a de facto requirement to pass legislation. This gives the minority the ability to overrule the majority by requiring a supermajority, which can be difficult for the majority to obtain. Some argue that the filibuster is unconstitutional because the filibuster is not among those motions that require a supermajority vote in the United States Constitution. The filibuster is a form of unlimited debate in which individual senators or a group of senators obstruct legislative action by holding the floor for an extended period of time and require a supermajority vote to cloture, which many argue is unconstitutional.
For a bill to become law, it must pass through the House of Representatives and the Senate in identical form. Filibusters occur in the Senate but not in the House because the Senate allows unlimited debate on its measures, while the House only allows five minutes. Rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the United States Senate allows a minority of forty-one senators the ability to prevent the Senate from debating or voting on bills, resolutions, or presidential nominations by filibustering or acquiescing a filibuster. A filibuster occurs when a senator or a group of senators take advantage of the “practice of unlimited debate” and hold the floor for an unnecessary amount of time with the intention of delaying or o...
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Filibusters can surely be effective for Senate minority leaders. However, it can have both its pros and cons. Some of the advantages include that the filibuster was created to protect the privileges of the Senators in order to fully debate and modify laws in the United States Senate, therefore securing the concern of all the citizens in America. Filibusters tend to exist thanks to the Founding Fathers ideology of designing a democratic government in which politicians became involved and educated throughout many political processes. Whenever a Senator goes on the Senate floor and talks endlessly for hours on a particular issue, it automatically engages attention to the particular matter, such as the 11-hour filibuster Senator Wendy Davis accomplished
In the past century, people continued to express an increasingly discontent view of Congress especially true when one looks back before the Clinton Impeachment debacle As the size of the nation and the number of congressman have grown, the congress has come under attack by both public influences and congressman themselves. Yet looking at one congressman's relationship with his or her constituents, it would be hard to believe that this is the branch of government that has come under suspect. In “If Ralph Nader says congress is 'The broken branch,' how come we love our congressman so much?” author Richard F. Fenno, Jr., provides insight into this view and why, through congress coming under fire, constituents still feel positively about there congressmen. Although congress is often criticized, its fine tuned functioning is essential in checking the power of congress without hindering the making of legislation.
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The rise of the use of recess appointments has led the Senate to come up with unjust practices to keep the president from having an opening to recess appoint. Pro-forma sessions were created by Senate democrats to stop President George W. Bush from making recess appointments. Pro-forma sessions were an open Senate floor to start business for the Senate. However, only one senator was needed to bang the gavel into a meeting. These sessions could be as short at thirty seconds. This would deny the President from being able to make any recess appointments, because the Senate would not be in recess, although most members were not in for the session and no votes could be held. These pro-forma sessions are a deceitful way to keep the President from fairly appointing in Senate
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Otto von Bismarck once said, “Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” The arduous process that a bill undergoes in order to become a law may seem grueling and pointless; however, the processes high caliber of difficulty allows for the extreme prestige and exclusivity of bills that are passed. Because the process is so exhausting, and filibusters, subsequently requiring a super-majority vote to pass a bill, have always been such a threat in Congress, historically, bills that attempt to reform sensitive issues have not fared well in the legislative branch. However, when Congress does pass controversial laws, it then also faces the task of effectively enforcing them. But, when the process is carried out to completion, laws that are enforced have significant impacts on the everyday lives of the American people—such as laws concerning abortion rights. In the United States, the government and Congress have significantly affected the rights of women with regard to abortions through laws that either restrict or guarantee their legality and availability, while the government’s capacity to do so is affected by the principle of federalism along with that of the separation of powers.
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...ng to our benefit. Congress has several important and express responsibilities and while at times they may attempt to flex those powers in ways we don't agree with, or take the necessary and proper clause a little too liberally, we the people are always free to challenge them and utilize the powers given to us as free citizens to help decide how far those powers can really extend.
First, in the long process of a bill becoming a law is introducing a bill. After someone from Congress in either chamber has come up with an idea for a bill they must introduce it. For members of the House of Representatives this is easy. All they have to do is put their idea in a mahogany box at the front of the chamber called the hopper. Now for a Senator to introduce a bill they must either hand it to the clerk of the Senate or they must talk about it in a presentation to their peers in a floor speech. Sometimes though Senators can cut down this process by adding their bill as an amendment to legislation that is already being processed. This saves them a lot of time. Also, new ideas for bills are labeled depending on what chamber they come from. Bills from the house will always be labeled with an H.R. with its number behind it. Well bills from the Senate will always be labeled with an S. followed by its number.
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