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Senate to vote on cloture motions on the Eisen and Aponte nominations December 12

Senate to vote on cloture motions on the Eisen and Aponte nominations December 12

          Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaThe Senate Calendar for Monday, December 12 includes the following entry:

Norman L. Eisen (Cal. No. 360)
Mari Carmen Aponte (Cal. No. 501)

Ordered, That at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, December 12, 2011, the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations concurrently: Norman L. Eisen, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Czech Republic and Mari Carmen Aponte, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of El Salvador; that there be one hour for debate equally divided in the usual form; that upon the use or yielding back of time the Senate proceed without intervening action or debate to vote on cloture on the Eisen nomination; that if cloture is invoked, the Senate immediately vote on confirmation of the nomination and following the disposition of the Eisen nomination, the Senate proceed to vote on cloture on the nomination of Mari Carmen Aponte; that the President be immediately notified of the Senates actions and the Senate then resume legislative session.

Ordered, That relative to the cloture motions filed on the Eisen and Aponte nominations, the mandatory quorum under Rule XXII be waived.

According to senate.gov, cloture is the only procedure by which the Senate can vote to place a time limit on consideration of a bill or other matter, and thereby overcome a filibuster. Under the cloture rule (Rule XXII), the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours, but only by vote of three-fifths of the full Senate, normally 60 votes.

Additional items below from the Senate Floor Schedule for Monday, December 12:

Upon disposition of the Eisen nomination, the Senate will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Aponte nomination.  Further, if cloture is not invoked on the Eisen nomination, the Senate will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Aponte nomination.

Therefore, at approximately 5:30pm on Monday, Senators should expect up to 3 and at least 2 roll call votes in relation the following:

• Motion to invoke cloture on the Eisen nomination
• If cloture is invoked, confirmation of the Eisen nomination
• Motion to invoke cloture on the Aponte nomination

Additionally, Senator Reid announced that the Senate expects to consider the following additional items next week: additional nominations, remaining appropriations bills, balanced budget amendments, and payroll tax, unemployment insurance, Medicare reimbursement, tax extenders, all of which are set to expire at the end of the year.

Related item:
CRS: Invoking Cloture in the Senate

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