cloture
- a method of closing a debate and causing an immediate vote to be taken on the question.
- to close (a debate) by cloture.
Origin of cloture
Examples from the Web for cloture
Contemporary Examples of cloture
The little pests will go on to a supposedly prestigious institution (the Senate) choked in ivy (or cloture debate).
The big turning point in the vote seemed to be when both McConnell and Cornyn supported the cloture vote.
Finally, in 1917, a cloture vote, which could end the filibuster by a two-thirds vote of the Senate, was enacted.
By a 61-30 vote, the Senate voted for cloture Monday evening on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA.
Senators from both parties had already predicted that the authorization to use force in Syria would require a cloture vote.
Historical Examples of cloture
If you had asked a Chicagoan, the honorable chairman would have been compelled to resort to cloture before the orator got through.
To prevent this Mr. Mason wishes a rule of cloture (or closure, as it is called in England) adopted.
cloture
- closure in the US Senate
- (tr) to end (debate) in the US Senate by cloture
Word Origin for cloture
Word Origin and History for cloture
1871, the French word for "closure, the action of closing," applied to debates in the French Assembly ("action of closing (debate) by will of a majority"), then to the House of Commons and U.S. Congress, from French clôture, from Old French closture (see closure). It was especially used in English by those opposed to the tactic.
In foreign countries the Clôture has been used notoriously to barricade up a majority against the "pestilent" criticism of a minority, and in this country every "whip" and force is employed by the majority to re-assert its continued supremacy and to keep its ranks intact whenever attacked. How this one-sided struggle to maintain solidarity can be construed into "good for all" is inexplicable in the sense uttered. ["The clôture and the Recent Debate, a Letter to Sir J. Lubbock," London, 1882]
cloture
A vote of a legislature used to stop debate on an issue and put the issue to a vote. (See filibuster.)