Clap louder? Via Twitter:

@clairecmc  Claire McCaskill

Woooohooooo! We did it! The Rules of the United States Senate now prohibit secret holds. The vote was 92 -4. 1 hour ago

@BHIndepMO  Brandon H.

Secret Holds are gone? Now what will Claire McCaskill talk about? kidding kidding @clairecmc ;D #mo 1 hour ago

@BGinKC  Blue Girl

Apparently @clairecmc and I define “victory” differently. I consider what the Democrats failed to do re: Senate reform abject surrender. 41 minutes ago

The results of today’s votes to change the Senate rules:

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 112th Congress – 1st Session (2011)

Vote Date Issue Question Result Description

00006 27-Jan S.Res. 21 On the Resolution Rejected S. Res. 21 As Amended; A resolution to amend the Standing Rules of the Senate to provide procedures for extended debate.

00005 27-Jan S.Res. 10 On the Resolution Rejected S. Res. 10 As Amended; A resolution to improve the debate and consideration of legislative matters and nominations in the Senate.

00004 27-Jan S.Res. 8 On the Resolution Rejected S. Res. 8; A resolution amending the Standing Rules of the Senate to provide for cloture to be invoked with less than a three-fifths majority after additional debate.

00003 27-Jan S.Res. 29 On the Resolution Agreed to S. Res. 29; A resolution to permit the waiving of the reading of an amendment if the text and adequate notice are provided.

00002 27-Jan S.Res. 28 On the Resolution Agreed to S. Res. 28; A resolution to establish as a standing order of the Senate that a Senator publicly disclose a notice of intent to objecting to any measure or matter.

[emphasis added]

The vote on stopping secret holds:

Question:  On the Resolution (S. Res. 28 )

Vote Number: 2 Vote Date: January 27, 2011, 04:37 PM

Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Resolution Agreed to

Vote Counts: YEAs 92

NAYs 4

Not Voting 4

Blunt (R-MO), Yea  

McCaskill (D-MO), Yea

NAYs —4

DeMint (R-SC)

Ensign (R-NV)

Lee (R-UT)

Paul (R-KY)

Not Voting – 4

Feinstein (D-CA)

Hutchison (R-TX)

Inouye (D-HI)

McCain (R-AZ)

[emphasis added]

It looks like teabaggers and their sympathizers ain’t fans of transparency.

The vote to waive a required reading of the entire bill on the floor of the Senate (this was used by the republican minority in the last Congress as a delaying tactic):

Question:  On the Resolution (S. Res. 29 )

Vote Number: 3 Vote Date: January 27, 2011, 05:03 PM

Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Resolution Agreed to

Vote Counts: YEAs 81

NAYs 15

Not Voting 4

Blunt (R-MO), Yea

McCaskill (D-MO), Yea

NAYs —15

Coburn (R-OK)

Cornyn (R-TX)

Crapo (R-ID)

DeMint (R-SC)

Ensign (R-NV)

Hatch (R-UT)

Inhofe (R-OK)

Lee (R-UT)

Paul (R-KY)

Risch (R-ID)

Rubio (R-FL)

Sessions (R-AL)

Thune (R-SD)

Toomey (R-PA)

Vitter (R-LA)

Not Voting – 4

Feinstein (D-CA)

Hutchison (R-TX)

Inouye (D-HI)

McCain (R-AZ)

Fancy that, obstructionist republicans still want to obstruct.

Then the really big changes pertaining to filibuster reform:

SRES 8 IS

112th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. RES. 8

Amending the Standing Rules of the Senate to provide for cloture to be invoked with less than a three-fifths majority after additional debate.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

January 5, 2011

Mr. HARKIN (for himself, Mr. DURBIN, Ms. MIKULSKI, and Mrs. SHAHEEN) submitted the following resolution; which was ordered to lie over, under the rule

RESOLUTION

Amending the Standing Rules of the Senate to provide for cloture to be invoked with less than a three-fifths majority after additional debate.

     Resolved,

SECTION 1. SENATE CLOTURE MODIFICATION.

     Paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate is amended to read as follows:

     `2. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of rule II or rule IV or any other rule of the Senate, at any time a motion signed by sixteen Senators, to bring to a close the debate upon any measure, motion, other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, is presented to the Senate, the Presiding Officer, or clerk at the direction of the Presiding Officer, shall at once state the motion to the Senate, and one hour after the Senate meets on the following calendar day but one, he shall lay the motion before the Senate and direct that the clerk call the roll, and upon the ascertainment that a quorum is present, the Presiding Officer shall, without debate, submit to the Senate by a yea-and-nay vote the question: `Is it the sense of the Senate that the debate shall be brought to a close?’ And if that question shall be decided in the affirmative by three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn–except on a measure or motion to amend the Senate rules, in which case the necessary affirmative vote shall be two-thirds of the Senators present and voting–then said measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, shall be the unfinished business.

     `Thereafter no Senator shall be entitled to speak in all more than one hour on the measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, the amendments thereto, and motions affecting the same, and it shall be the duty of the Presiding Officer to keep the time of each Senator who speaks. Except by unanimous consent, no amendment shall be proposed after the vote to bring the debate to a close, unless it had been submitted in writing to the Journal Clerk by 1 o’clock p.m. on the day following the filing of the cloture motion if an amendment in the first degree, and unless it had been so submitted at least one hour prior to the beginning of the cloture vote if an amendment in the second degree. No dilatory motion, or dilatory amendment, or amendment not germane shall be in order. Points of order, including questions of relevancy, and appeals from the decision of the Presiding Officer, shall be decided without debate.

     `After no more than thirty hours of consideration of the measure, motion, or other matter on which cloture has been invoked, the Senate shall proceed, without any further debate on any question, to vote on the final disposition thereof to the exclusion of all amendments not then actually pending before the Senate at that time and to the exclusion of all motions, except a motion to table, or to reconsider and one quorum call on demand to establish the presence of a quorum (and motions required to establish a quorum) immediately before the final vote begins. The thirty hours may be increased by the adoption of a motion, decided without debate, by a three-fifths affirmative vote of the Senators duly chosen and sworn, and any such time thus agreed upon shall be equally divided between and controlled by the majority and minority leaders or their designees. However, only one motion to extend time, sp
ecified above, may be made in any one calendar day.

     `If, for any reason, a measure or matter is reprinted after cloture has been invoked, amendments which were in order prior to the reprinting of the measure or matter will continue to be in order and may be conformed and reprinted at the request of the amendment’s sponsor. The conforming changes must be limited to lineation and pagination.

     `No Senator shall call up more than two amendments until every other Senator shall have had the opportunity to do likewise.

     `Notwithstanding other provisions of this rule, a Senator may yield all or part of his one hour to the majority or minority floor managers of the measure, motion, or matter or to the majority or minority leader, but each Senator specified shall not have more than two hours so yielded to him and may in turn yield such time to other Senators.

     `Notwithstanding any other provision of this rule, any Senator who has not used or yielded at least ten minutes, is, if he seeks recognition, guaranteed up to ten minutes, inclusive, to speak only.

     `After cloture is invoked, the reading of any amendment, including House amendments, shall be dispensed with when the proposed amendment has been identified and has been available in printed form at the desk of the Members for not less than twenty-four hours.

     `(b)(1) If, upon a vote taken on a motion presented pursuant to subparagraph (a), the Senate fails to invoke cloture with respect to a measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, or the unfinished business, subsequent motions to bring debate to a close may be made with respect to the same measure, motion, matter, or unfinished business. It shall not be in order to file subsequent cloture motions on any measure, motion, or other matter pending before the Senate, except by unanimous consent, until the previous motion has been disposed of.

     `(2) Such subsequent motions shall be made in the manner provided by, and subject to the provisions of, subparagraph (a), except that the affirmative vote required to bring to a close debate upon that measure, motion, or other matter, or unfinished business (other than a measure or motion to amend Senate rules) shall be reduced by three votes on the second such motion, and by three additional votes on each succeeding motion, until the affirmative vote is reduced to a number equal to or less than an affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn. The required vote shall then be an affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn. The requirement of an affirmative vote of a majority of the Senators duly chosen and sworn shall not be further reduced upon any vote taken on any later motion made pursuant to this subparagraph with respect to that measure, motion, matter, or unfinished business.’.

SEC. 2. SPECIAL CONSIDERATION OF AMENDMENTS POSTCLOTURE.

     Paragraph 2 of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate is amended by inserting at the end the following:

     `After debate has concluded under this paragraph but prior to final disposition of the pending matter, the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader may each offer not to exceed 3 amendments identified as leadership amendments if they have been timely filed under this paragraph and are germane to the matter being amended. Debate on a leadership amendment shall be limited to 1 hour equally divided. A leadership amendment may not be divided.’.

[emphasis added]

Did you get that? If a cloture vote failed (thus continuing the filibuster) debate continues and after a time subsequent cloture votes can be taken, with the number of votes required to stop the filibuster dropped by three on each subsequent vote until only a simple majority is needed to proceed.

Well, that rules change failed:

Question:  On the Resolution (S. Res. 8 )

Vote Number: 4 Vote Date: January 27, 2011, 05:20 PM

Required For Majority: 2/3 Vote Result: Resolution Rejected

Vote Counts: YEAs 12

NAYs 84

Not Voting 4

Blunt (R-MO), Nay

McCaskill (D-MO), Nay

YEAs —12

Begich (D-AK)

Blumenthal (D-CT)

Durbin (D-IL)

Gillibrand (D-NY)

Harkin (D-IA)

Kerry (D-MA)

Kohl (D-WI)

Lautenberg (D-NJ)

Lieberman (ID-CT)

Mikulski (D-MD)

Shaheen (D-NH)

Udall (D-NM)  

Not Voting – 4

Feinstein (D-CA)

Hutchison (R-TX)

Inouye (D-HI)

McCain (R-AZ)

[emphasis added]

What were you thinking, Claire? And Joe Lieberman was a good guy?

Making the U.S. Senate actually work via changing the rules, explained in 90 seconds:

Narrator: This legislative summary is brought to you by Main Street Insider. Today we examine the “constitutional option” as proposed by Senator Tom Udall which is a mechanism that opens the door to changing filibuster rules. The Senate’s reputation as the place where bills go to die is becoming increasingly appropriate since two thousand seven.

David Waldman: Major legislation used to face a filibuster about eight to ten percent of the the time as far back as the sixties. These days seventy plus percent of the bills and nominations coming to the floor face a filibuster which really means that the Senate has just become paralyzed.  

Narrator: In response Senator Udall has proposed using a procedural mechanism that allows a simple majority to end a debate on rules changes at the beginning of a new Congress instead of the usual two thirds super majority.

This so-called “constitutional option”, if approved, would apply only on the first legislative day of the session and would require the President of the Senate’s approval. It does not contain any substantive changes to the rules themselves and simply provides an avenue to approve the rules with fifty-one votes.

Supporters say that filibuster reform is crucial to meeting the nation’s many pressing concerns and believe this option presents the best hope to change the rules.

Senator Tom Udall: With the hundreds of bills passed by the House the senate’s to do list keeps growing. the obstruction is irresponsible and far too easily influenced by the special interests.

Narrator: Opponents argue that the filibuster is a longstanding and important tradition that should not be jettisoned so casually.

The measure is expected to be brought up by Senator Udall in the first day of the new session, January fifth, and will require a majority vote, or fifty votes plus Vice President Biden to pass….

Previously:

Senator Claire McCaskill (D): Twitter flurry on republican obstruction and filibuster reform (December 10, 2010)

….And, of course, we chimed in:

@MBersin @clairecmc Then do something about changing the rules in January. #MO 44 minutes ago via web in reply to clairecmc

And Blue Girl:

@BGinKC @clairecmc And if the Ds don’t change the rules 1st thing Jan 5th, it stops being their fault and starts being yours. #thatsjustthewayitis 41 minutes ago via web in reply to clairecmc

And someone else:

@DoctorD71 @clairecmc You guys need to vote to change the Senate rules to stop the R roadblock. 39 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® in reply to clairecmc

….

Well, Claire, which side are you on?