Card set / section B
The votes each motion needs
Every card in the set answers the same question: what number does the chair count? The answer is rarely just a majority of the room. Some motions count senators sworn, some count senators present, and one counts objections instead of votes.
The table is ordered by how often we reach for it. Where the rule text and current practice disagree, the card says so rather than picking the tidier version.
Cloture on legislation
Three-fifths of the full Senate, not three-fifths of those voting. Absences do not lower the number.
60required
Senators duly chosen and sworn
Rule XXII
Cloture on a nomination
The rule still reads three-fifths. Precedent since 2013 applies a majority to nominations, and since 2017 to Supreme Court nominations.
51required
Senators voting
Rule XXII, as narrowed by precedent
Veto override
Two-thirds of those present, so the practical number moves if members are absent.
67required
Senators present
U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 7
Treaty ratification
Two-thirds of the senators present concur. A treaty can also be approved with reservations that change its legal effect.
67required
Senators present
U.S. Const. art. II, sec. 2
Conviction on impeachment
Two-thirds of the members present. The chief justice presides when the president is tried.
67required
Senators present
U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 3
Expulsion of a member
Two-thirds of the members present. Expulsion has been used fifteen times in Senate history, most recently in 1862.
67required
Senators present
U.S. Const. art. I, sec. 5
Quorum call
A majority of the Senate. A quorum call can also be used to pause the floor while a deal is worked out off the record.
51required
Senators present
Rule VI
Reconciliation bill
The expedited route is not free: provisions that do not change spending or revenue can be struck under the Byrd rule.
51required
Senators voting
Congressional Budget Act of 1974
Unanimous consent request
One objection stops the request and the floor returns to the underlying order of business.
0 objectionsrequired
Any single senator
Practice, no rule text
Sworn, present, or voting
The three phrases are not interchangeable, and the difference decides close votes. A three-fifths threshold on the full Senate is 60 whether or not anyone is in the building. A two-thirds threshold of those present is 60 if the chamber has 90 members on the floor, and 54 if it has 81. That is why the cloakroom counts bodies before it counts commitments.
Quorum calls are the other half of the arithmetic. The Constitution sets a majority of each house as the quorum, which is 51 in the Senate. Business can proceed with fewer members in the room as long as no one suggests the absence of a quorum, which is exactly the opening a single senator needs to stop the floor.
Why the nomination card looks wrong
Readers who check Rule XXII against our card will find three-fifths printed in the rule and 51 on our line. Both are current. The Senate changed the application by ruling of the chair in November 2013 for most nominations, and again in April 2017 for Supreme Court nominations. The rule text was not amended. A card that showed 60 would be quoting the page and ignoring the floor.