Super-Majority Votes in the Senate (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Feb. 20, 2001 |
| Report Number |
98-779GOV |
| Authors |
Walter J. Oleszek |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The Senate has long been known for its emphasis on minority rights, for it provides
extensive procedural protections to individuals and minority coalitions. Yet most issues
in the Senate are decided by a simple majority vote: one-half-plus-one of the Members
voting, assuming the presence of a quorum. For instance, if all 100 Senators vote, the
winning margin is at least 51— one more than half the membership of the Senate. Under
Senate precedents, “[a] tie vote on a question defeats it.”
Some super-majority votes, however, are explicitly specified in the Constitution;
implicitly, they also inhere in authority granted in Article I, section 5, which says, “Each
chamber may determine the Rules of Its Proceedings.” Under this affirmative
constitutional power, the Senate has imposed on itself a number of additional supermajority
(sometimes called “extraordinary majority”) requirements. Worth review, then,
are the constitutional and Senate procedural-based exceptionsto the general principle that
Senators commonly decide issues by simple majority vote.
