Cloture & the Filibuster

In short#

In the US Senate, any seated senator can filibuster a bill that is on the floor. Doing so extends the vote by roughly 12 hours and raises the bar to pass from a simple majority to three fifths of the votes cast, which is the cloture threshold. There is no separate cloture motion to file: cloture is the passing rule the bill is held to once it has been filibustered. If the Senate abolishes the filibuster through the Senate Filibuster Rules Act, the bill returns to a simple majority.

Who can filibuster, and when#

• Only the US Senate. Other countries and the US House have no filibuster.
• Only seated US senators. You must hold a Senate seat when you invoke it.
• Only while the bill is actively before the Senate, either as the origin chamber or as the second chamber. A bill in the House, on the President's desk, or in a veto override cannot be filibustered.
• Not on concurrent votes. A bill voting in both chambers at once cannot be filibustered, because each chamber runs on its own clock.
• Once per senator per bill. Several senators may each filibuster the same bill.
• Banned parties in a one-party state cannot act on legislation at all, including this.

What it costs#

Each invocation costs 25 action points and 5 NPI. The cost is spent even if the bill goes on to pass. Invoking the filibuster also trains your Statecraft stat through use.

What it does to the bill#

1. The vote runs longer. The Senate deadline moves back by about 12 hours. Strong Statecraft lengthens the delay and weak Statecraft shortens it, within a modest band around the base. Both the clock deadline and the turn deadline move together.
2. The passing rule changes to cloture. When the Senate vote closes, the bill passes only if For is at least three fifths of all votes cast, where votes cast means For plus Against plus Abstain. The exact threshold is the smallest whole number at or above 60 percent of that total.

Two consequences follow from the rule being based on votes cast rather than on seats:

• Senators who never vote do not count against the bill. A quiet chamber does not help the filibuster.
• An abstention raises the bar. Abstaining adds to the total without adding to For, so a bloc that wants to sink a filibustered bill can do it by abstaining rather than voting Against.

The bill's page shows the Senate seating chart with the required share lifted to 60 percent while a filibuster is active, and lists every senator who invoked it.

What it does not do#

• It does not park or kill the bill. The vote stays open and the bill's status does not change. Whether the bill lives or dies is decided when the extended window closes.
• It does not stack the threshold. Ten filibusters on one bill still mean one three-fifths test. Each extra invocation adds another delay to the deadline.
• It does not touch bills that already need two thirds. Nationalization, privatization and declarations of war require two thirds of For plus Against in each chamber, and that bar already exceeds cloture, so it supersedes the filibuster check.
• It does not apply to leadership elections, confirmations or veto overrides.

Abolishing the filibuster#

The Senate Filibuster Rules Act is a Senate-only national bill with three options:

Only the abolition option changes anything mechanically. While it is in force the filibuster button is unavailable and any earlier invocations on open bills are ignored at the vote count.

Where to find it in game#

Open the bill from the Congress page. On the bill's detail page, senators see the Filibuster action while the bill is being voted on in the Senate. The Senate Filibuster Rules Act is proposed like any other bill from the Congress page.

Related pages#

• Bills & Legislation: the full bill lifecycle
• Voting & Whips: how votes and whip directives work
• Congress Leadership: who controls the floor