Discussing Senate Procedure, Rep. Carter Gets It Wrong On "Closure" (Cloture)
During a floor speech on March 9, 2010, the Secretary of the House Republican Conference, Rep. John Carter (R-TX), attempted to educate Americans on the history and tradition of Senate procedure.
Carter's effort, however, quickly became a comedy of errors. Not only did he get the facts wrong, he repeatedly referred to "cloture" as "closure."
Watch:
REP. JOHN CARTER: They [the founding fathers] set up a means by which the members of the Senate could do what's called filibuster the House, the Senate.
[...]
This has evolved, but the rules have been following that very trend and with that concept since the creation by our founding fathers. Today, we have a process that takes place over in the Senate which is, is sort of, if you will, imagine that there's someone standing up and talking until you get 60 votes to shut him up. But there's not really somebody standing up and talking, we have a rule called "closure."
[...]
One sixth of our economy teeters on the verge of change based upon whether or not the Senate rule of closure will be maintained as a rule, which has been in existence, and the concepts, since the founding of the body.
Contrary to Carter's claim, the founding fathers had no role in creating the modern filibuster rules or "closure." In fact, they specifically granted each house of Congress the power to determine its own rules. Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution explicitly states, "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings."
Cloture was created in 1917 with the adoption of Rule 22. The Senate Historian's website writes:
Three quarters of a century later, in 1917, senators adopted a rule (Rule 22), at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson, that allowed the Senate to end a debate with a two-thirds majority vote, a device known as "cloture."
While the intricacies of the Senate's procedural rules are difficult for the outsider to understand, it is more than fair to expect a member of Congress to grasp their basic tenets -- especially if that member dedicates an entire floor speech to discussing their history.
