Cloture

It was introduced into the Parliament of the United Kingdom by William Ewart Gladstone to overcome the obstructionism of the Irish Parliamentary Party and was made permanent in 1887.

Generally, a minister will declare that a bill must be considered as urgent, and move a motion to limit debating time.

[4] After a number of occasions where the opposition managed to delay or prevent passage of government bills, closure in Canada was adopted by the House of Commons in 1913 on the motion of Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden.

The new closure rule was used by the government only a few days later, during debate at the Committee of the Whole stage of the Naval Aid Bill.

[citation needed] Closure was used to force the adoption of a single red maple leaf flag design on December 15, 1964.

[11] Standing Order 92 therefore may implicitly give Council President discretion on whether he should or should not follow the cloture rules of other legislatures, but this is up to debate.

Legislative Council President Tsang chose to end debate without calling for a cloture vote, which is questionable.

If the length of the debate is not fixed by standing orders or the Business Committee, the Speaker may decide to put the closure motion to a vote, which is carried by a simple majority.

In the House of Commons, at least 100 MPs (not counting two acting as tellers) must vote in favour of the motion for closure to be adopted;[5] the Speaker of the House of Commons may choose to deny the closure motion,[5] if insufficient debate has occurred, or that the procedure is being used to violate the rights of the minority.

However he must read a statement stating the motion should only be used in exceptional circumstances and then asks the member if they wish to persist with moving it.

[6][14] On 24 January 1881, the second Gladstone ministry attempted to move the first reading of the Protection of Person and Property Bill, a controversial response to the Irish agrarian disturbances known as the Land War.

[16][17] The IPP MPs objected that this was an abuse by the speaker of their rights as members,[18] and the government responded by formalising the process as an amendment to the standing orders, moved by Gladstone on 3 February 1881:[16][19] That, if upon Notice given a Motion be made by a Minister of the Crown that the state of Public Business is urgent, and if on the call of the Speaker 40 Members shall support it by rising in their places, the Speaker shall forthwith put the Question, no Debate, Amendment, or Adjournment being allowed; and if, on the voices being given he shall without doubt perceive that the Noes have it, his decision shall not be challenged, but, if otherwise, a Division may be forthwith taken, and if the Question be resolved in the affirmative by a majority of not less than three to one, the powers of the House for the Regulation of its Business upon the several stages of Bills, and upon Motions and all other matters, shall be and remain with the Speaker, until the Speaker shall declare that the state of Public Business is no longer urgent, or until the House shall so determine upon a Motion, which after Notice given may be made by any Member, put without Amendment, Adjournment, or Debate, and decided by a majority Gladstone described it as "a subject of considerable novelty, and of the extremest gravity",[20] and many Irish members objected and were suspended from the House before the amendment motion was moved.

[16][21] In 1882, Gladstone proposed a major overhaul of the rules of procedure, and on 20 February debate began on the first resolution, on "putting the question".

[27] On 8 March 1917, during World War I, a rule allowing cloture of debate was adopted by the Senate by a vote of 76–3[28] at the urging of President Woodrow Wilson,[29] after a group of 12 anti-war senators managed to kill a bill that would have allowed Wilson to arm merchant vessels in the face of unrestricted German submarine warfare.

Under the Senate rules and precedents, certain questions are nondebatable or debate time on them is limited, most notably bills considered under the reconciliation procedure or joint resolutions providing for congressional disapproval.

[40]: 302 On November 21, 2013, after many of President Barack Obama's nominees had been filibustered (most notably, Republicans refused to confirm any nominees to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit), Majority Leader Harry Reid raised a point of order that the threshold for invoking cloture on nominations, other than those to the Supreme Court of the United States, is a simple majority.