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Motion to Invoke Cloture: Heath P. Tarbert to be Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Heath P. Tarbert, of Maryland, to be a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for a term expiring April 13, 2024

Jun 4, 2019 at 7:10 p.m. ET.

This was a vote on “cloture” in the Senate, which means to end debate so that an up-or-down vote can be taken. A vote in favor is a vote to end debate and move to a vote on the issue itself, while a vote against is a vote to prolong debate or to filibuster.

Totals

All Votes R D I
Yea 83%
 
 
 
83
51
 
31
 
1
 
Nay 10%
 
 
 
10
0
 
10
 
0
 
Not Voting 7%
 
 
 
7
2
 
4
 
1
 

Cloture Motion Agreed to. Simple Majority Required. Source: senate.gov.

The Yea votes represented 88% of the country’s population by apportioning each state’s population to its voting senators.

Ideology Vote Chart

Key: R Yea D Yea D Nay
Seat position based on our ideology score.

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Vote Details

Notes: *Senate Democratic Steering Committee Chair/Senate Minority Leader’s Vote

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D), the Senate Democratic Steering Committee Chair, voted Nay against her party.

Sen. Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D), the Senate Minority Leader, voted Nay against his party.

Somtimes a party leader will vote on the winning side, even if it is against his or her position, to have the right to call for a new vote under a motion to reconsider. For more, see this explanation from The Washington Post.

We do not know the rationale behind any vote, however.

“Aye” or “Yea”?

“Aye” and “Yea” mean the same thing, and so do “No” and “Nay”. Congress uses different words in different sorts of votes.

The U.S. Constitution says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). Congress takes this literally and uses “yea” and “nay” when voting on the final passage of bills.

All Senate votes use these words. But the House of Representatives uses “Aye” and “No” in other sorts of votes.

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Statistically Notable Votes

Statistically notable votes are the votes that are most surprising, or least predictable, given how other members of each voter’s party voted and other factors.

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