H.Res. 545: Calling for an end to the abuse of the Standing Rules of the Senate and to improve the debate and consideration of legislative matters.

114th Congress · introduced 2015-12-02 · Congress · Latest: Referred to the House Committee on Rules.

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Follow this bill, step by step

Where it came from: introduced 2015-12-02 · official record
Who proposed it: Rep. Franks, Trent [R-AZ-8] · what a sponsor is
What happened next: no floor votes in our records yet. Why?
Where it stands now: Referred to the House Committee on Rules. Not final yet: this can still change. We check for updates every day.
If it becomes law and spends money: follow the money to money laws, then agencies and contracts and grants.

What does this mean?

Official title

Calling for an end to the abuse of the Standing Rules of the Senate and to improve the debate and consideration of legislative matters.

Plain summary

Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that: the Standing Rules of the Senate and debate practices should not be abused to debilitate it and indefinitely block debate or a fair, up or down vote on legislative matters; after the Senate sets a new precedent to restore its workings, it should negotiate and adopt, under its existing rules of a supermajority vote to invoke cloture, a parliamentarian procedure to replace the cloture motion to call up legislation and make it pending, with a "non debatable motion to proceed to consider" that allows for the minority to offer a reasonable number of germane amendments, subject to debate, once the measure is pending for consideration; these proposed number of germane amendments and debate hours and mechanism to truncate debate could be decreased or increased at the time that the rule change is negotiated and adopted, ensuring the appropriate center between sufficient adversarial debate and the prevention of chronic stalemate is both a Senate majority and minority determination; and nothing in this resolution shall be construed as the House advocating a wholesale abolishment of a Senate filibuster mechanism or supermajority cloture requirement, or calling for the classic standing and talking Senate filibuster to be abolished, but that the House believes it should be reinvigorated. Encourages the Senate to forbid threats of a filibuster derived from an "anonymous hold," and in its place reinvigorate the "traditional standing filibuster" or "hold the floor" mechanism of dissent, with a time allocation of up to 100 hours and the ability to truncate debate only by a petition of 60 Senators.

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House), quoted unchanged (nonpartisan). Read the source.

What a vote does

A “Yea” vote

A Yea supports adopting this resolution.

A “Nay” vote

If it is not passed, current law stays as it is.

PSI Sci description of the legislative step (not an opinion).

What does this mean? (plain words)

Official text

Calling for an end to the abuse of the Standing Rules of the Senate and to improve the debate and consideration of legislative matters.

Source: Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)

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Alternatives

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How did my representative vote? · This bill's floor votes

Officials and money

Sponsor: Rep. Franks, Trent [R-AZ-8] · 13 cosponsors

Cost estimate: No cost estimate published yet.

Cosponsors on this site

Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Tim Walberg (R-MI), Paul A. Gosar (R-AZ), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

No linked floor roll calls in our collected records yet. This does not mean the bill has never had a vote. Check the official bill history.

Words on this page, explained (6)

Appropriation: Money a legislature sets aside by law for a specific purpose. Government agencies may spend public money only as it has been appropriated.
Cloture: A U.S. Senate vote to end debate on a measure, which usually needs 60 votes. It is how the Senate ends a filibuster.
Filibuster: Using long debate or other delay to block or slow a vote in the U.S. Senate.
Resolution: A formal statement or decision by a legislative body. Simple resolutions often only express an opinion or set rules for one chamber; they do not become law.
Roll-call vote: A vote where each member's position is recorded by name, so the public can see how every member voted. "Yea" means yes, "Nay" means no, "Present" means the member was there but did not take a side.
Rulemaking: The process agencies use to write regulations that carry out laws passed by Congress or a legislature. Usually an agency publishes a proposed rule, takes public comments, then publishes a final rule.

Plain meanings written from linked sources. All words.

Sources

Congressional Research Service summary (Introduced in House)
Congress.gov
Data: GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (Library of Congress), BILLSTATUS-114hres545.xml <https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/114/hres>

Record fed-us-cong114-hres545 · catalog fed-us-congress-bills-cong114 · updated 2026-11-15 by psicol fed-bills-cong114