Motion Invoke Cloture on the Shelby Amdt. No. 5
This was a vote on Senate Republicans’ proposal to fund certain federal agencies through September 30, 2019 and to reopen the agencies whose funding lapsed at the start of the partial government shutdown until February 8, 2019. The proposal was one of two Senate amendments that would have replaced the text of the House funding proposal H.R. 268. It would have included $5.7 billion in funding for a southern border wall and increase restrictions on asylum-seekers attempting to enter the United States.
The Washington Post wrote about the two amendments two days before they were both rejected. The full text of the amendment can be found at the top of this page.
On December 22, 2018 the 115th Congress was unable to reach a deal to fund some federal agencies through fiscal year 2019 after President Trump demanded $5 billion in funding for a southern border wall. The Senate had unanimously passed a bill to fund the government through 2019, without the border wall, the then Republican-controlled House amended the bill adding $5 billion in funding for a southern border wall. The Senate neglected to vote on that bill leaving it to die in the previous Congress. When funding lapsed for the USDA, FDA, and Departments of Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, Environment, State, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, the partial government shutdown began. When the 116th Congress began in 2019, Democrats took control of the House. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made it clear that the House does not plan to approve funding for the border wall in any future appropriations bills. As of January 24, House Democrats have passed ten different bills that would completely or partially reopen the federal government. Only H.R. 268 has been considered by the Senate, where Republican and Democratic amendments to the bill both failed.
This vote was related to amendment S.Amdt. 5 (116th) (Richard Shelby) to H.R. 268 (116th). The title of the amendment is S.Amdt. 5 (Shelby) to H.R. 268: Of a perfecting nature..
Totals
| All Votes | Republicans | Democrats | Independents | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yea | 50% |
50
|
49
|
1
|
0
|
| Nay | 47% |
47
|
2
|
43
|
2
|
| Not Voting | 3% |
3
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
Cloture Motion Rejected. 3/5 Required. Source: senate.gov.
The Yea votes represented 48% of the country’s population by apportioning each state’s population to its voting senators.
Ideology Vote Chart
Vote Details
Sen. Joe Manchin (D), the Senate Democratic Policy & Communications Committee Vice Chair, voted Yea 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” 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 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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Study Guide
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This vote is related to a bill. However, that doesn’t necessarily tell you what it is about. Congress makes many decisions in the process of passing legislation, such as on the procedures for debating the bill, whether to change the bill before voting on passage, and even whether to vote on passage at all.
This was a vote on an amendment to the bill. You can find the text of the amendment by looking for where it appears in the text of the Congressional Record. If you’re wondering why Congress doesn’t make it easier to find the text of each amendment, so are we.
You can learn more about the various motions used in Congress at EveryCRSReport.com. If you aren’t sure what the Senate was voting on, try seeing if it’s on this list.
Take a look at where this bill is in the legislative process. What might come next? Keep in mind what this specific vote was on, and the context of the bill. Will there be amendments? Will the other chamber of Congress vote on it, or let it die?
For this question it may help to briefly examine the bill itself.
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- How much of the United States population is represented by the yeas?
Members of Congress side together for many reasons beside being in the same political party, especially so for less prominent legislation or legislation specific to a certain region. What might have determined how the roll call came out in this case? Does it look like Members of Congress voted based on party, geography, or some other reason?
There are two votes here that should be more important to you than all the others. These are the votes cast by your senators, which are meant to represent you and your community. Do you agree with how your senators voted? Why do you think they voted the way they did?
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GovTrack displays the percentage of the United States population represented by the yeas on some Senate votes just under the vote totals. We do this to highlight how the people of the United States are represented in the Senate. Since each state has two senators, but state populations vary significantly, the individuals living in each state have different Senate representation. For example, California’s population of near 40 million is given the same number of senators as Wyoming’s population of about 600,000.
Do the senators who voted yea represent a majority of the people of the United States? Does it matter?
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