Filling The Tree
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Filling The Tree
In the United States Senate, filling the tree is a procedure by which the majority leader can prevent amendments to a piece of legislation from being voted on. This is done by filling all possible opportunities for amendments by amendments of the leader's choosing. It is not a new tactic, but saw a significant increase in usage under Harry Reid. Procedure The Senate majority leader has a traditional right to be recognized first for the purposes of offering amendments on legislation. The term itself is a colloquial name for the diagram used to show the priority given to amendments to a bill. The trunk of the tree represents the bill, while the branches reflect the corresponding amendments. Majority leaders fill the tree to introduce first- and second-degree amendments that block other senators from offering further amendments because the Senate cannot move on to another amendment without unanimous consent or overcoming a filibuster on the motion to put the other amendment before the ...
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United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The Senate is composed of senators, each of whom represents a single state in its entirety. Each of the 50 states is equally represented by two senators who serve staggered terms of six years, for a total of 100 senators. The vice president of the United States serves as presiding officer and president of the Senate by virtue of that office, despite not being a senator, and has a vote only if the Senate is equally divided. In the vice president's absence, the president pro tempore, who is traditionally the senior member of the party holding a majority of seats, presides over the Senate. As the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate has several powers o ...
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Party Leaders Of The United States Senate
The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and members of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as the chief spokespersons for their respective political parties holding the majority and the minority in the United States Senate. They are each elected as majority leader and minority leader by the senators of their party caucuses: the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate Republican Conference. By Senate precedent, the presiding officer gives the majority leader priority in obtaining recognition to speak on the floor of the Senate. The majority leader serves as the chief representative of their party in the Senate, and is considered the most powerful member of the Senate. They also serve as the chief representative of their party in the entire Congress if the House of Representatives, and thus the office of the speaker of the House, is controlled by the opposition party. The Senate's executive and legislat ...
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Amend (motion)
In parliamentary procedure, the motion to amend is used to modify another motion. An amendment could itself be amended. A related procedure is filling blanks in a motion. Explanation and use Using Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), all main motions can be amended, by so called "first-order" amendments. A first-order amendment can be amended, by "second-order" amendments. However, the limit is that a second-order amendment may not be amended, because it would be too complicated. Secondary motions that, by their nature, include a variable element, also may be amended. For example, the motion to postpone may be amended as to the length of the postponement; the motion to limit or extend limits of debate may be amended as to the number or length of speeches or the total time to be consumed; and the motion to commit or refer may be amended as to the details of the committee or the time within which the committee must report. Forms and uses of the motion The motion to ame ...
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Legislation
Legislation is the process or result of enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill (proposed law), bill, and may be broadly referred to as "legislation" while it remains under consideration to distinguish it from other business. Legislation can have many purposes: to regulate, to authorize, to outlaw, to provide (funds), to sanction, to grant, to declare, or to restrict. It may be contrasted with a non-legislative act by an Executive (government), executive or administrative body under the authority of a legislative act. Overview Legislation is usually proposed by a member of the legislature (e.g. a member of Congress or Parliament), or by the executive, whereupon it is debated by members of the legislature and is often amended before passage (legislature), passage. Most large legislatures enact ...
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Harry Reid
Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015. After earning an undergraduate degree from Utah State University and a law degree from George Washington University, Reid began his public career as the city attorney for Henderson, Nevada, before being elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1968. Gubernatorial candidate Mike O'Callaghan, Reid's former boxing coach, chose Reid as his running mate in 1970; following their victory Reid served as the 25th lieutenant governor of Nevada from 1971 to 1975. After being defeated in races for the United States Senate and mayor of Las Vegas, Reid served as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission from 1977 to 1981. From 1983 to 1987, Reid represented Nevada's 1st district in the United States House of Representa ...
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Amendment
An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. They are often used when it is better to change the document than to write a new one. Only the legislative branch is involved in the amendment process. Contracts Contracts are often amended when the market changes. For example, a contract to deliver something to a customer once a month can be amended if the customer wants it delivered once a week. Usually Contracts also are categorized for their promotion in a nation, such as the Treaty of Versailles. Law Legislation In parliamentary procedure, a motion is a proposal to do something. The wording of such a proposal can be changed with a motion to amend. Amendments can remove words, add words, or change words in motions. All main motions and some secondary motions can be amended. An ...
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Bill (law)
A bill is proposed legislation under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature as well as, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an '' act of the legislature'', or a ''statute''. Bills are introduced in the legislature and are discussed, debated and voted upon. Usage The word ''bill'' is primarily used in Anglophone United Kingdom and United States, the parts of a bill are known as ''clauses'', until it has become an act of parliament, from which time the parts of the law are known as ''sections''. In Napoleonic law nations (including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and Portugal), a proposed law may be known as a "law project" (Fr. ''projet de loi''), which is a government-introduced bill, or a "law proposition" (Fr. ''proposition de loi''), a private member's bill. For example the Dutch parliamentary system does not make this terminological distinction (''wetsontwe ...
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Susan Collins
Susan Margaret Collins (born December 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Maine. A member of the Republican Party, she has held her seat since 1997 and is Maine's longest-serving member of Congress. Born in Caribou, Maine, Collins is a graduate of St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. Beginning her career as a staff assistant for Senator William Cohen in 1975, she became staff director of the Oversight of Government Management Subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs (which later became the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs) in 1981. Governor John R. McKernan Jr. then appointed her commissioner of the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation in 1987. In 1992 President George H. W. Bush appointed her director of the Small Business Administration's regional office in Boston. Collins became a deputy state treasurer in the office of the Treasurer and Receiver-General of ...
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National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2010
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (, , 123 Stat. 2190.) is a law in the United States signed by President Barack Obama on October 28, 2009. As a bill it was H.R. 2647 in the 111th Congress. The overall purpose of the law is to authorize funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, for military construction, and for national security-related energy programs. Division A 3.4% basic military pay raise Title I * Subtitle D, Sections 132 & 133 repealed the FY 2009 F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft funding and re-directed it to preserving the maintenance and tooling of the existing program. Title V * Subtitle H - Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act Title XII * Subtitle B - Success in Countering Al Qaeda Reporting Requirements Act of 2009 * Subtitle D - Victims of Iranian Censorship Act (or the VOICE Act) :: Authorizes the Secretary of State to continue efforts in support of Iranian dissidents Title XVIII * Mil ...
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Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014
The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (, nicknamed the Cromnibus) is an omnibus spending bill that packages several appropriation bills together in one larger bill. The 113th United States Congress failed to pass any of the twelve regular appropriations bills before the beginning of Fiscal Year 2014. The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014 temporarily funded the government from October 1, 2013 to January 15, 2014. A second continuing resolution extended funding until January 18, 2014, giving both the House and the Senate enough time to vote on this bill. Background The budget and spending process of the United States federal government is a complex one. The United States budget process traditionally begins when the President of the United States submits a budget request to Congress. The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 requires the President to submit the budget to Congress for each fiscal year, which is the 12-month period beginning on October 1 and ending on September 3 ...
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Filibuster
A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking out a bill", and is characterized as a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body. Etymology The term "filibuster" ultimately derives from the Dutch ("freebooter", a pillaging and plundering adventurer), but the precise history of the word's borrowing into English is obscure.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "filibuster", pp. F:212–213. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' finds its only known use in early modern English in a 1587 book describing "flibutors" who robbed supply convoys. In the late 18th century, the term was re-borrowed into English from its French form , a form that was used until the mid-19th century. The modern English form "filibuster" was borrowed in the early 1850s from the Spanish (lawless plunder ...
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