Sixty Votes: The Threshold For Senate Action
July 19, 2007, 12:10pm
This week’s staged all-night session by Senate Democrats to draw attention to the war in Iraq proved to be for naught for one simple reason: They didn’t have the 60 votes necessary to force a vote on their legislation to change U.S. policy about the war.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., emphasized that point in a floor speech. “I think we can stipulate … [that] in the United States Senate, it takes 60 votes on controversial matters,” he said. “What is more controversial than the war in Iraq. Of course it’s going to take 60 votes.”
He added that “the only reason we stayed in all night was to provide a bit of theater on an extraordinarily important issue.”
Categories: Kentucky, Iraq, Mitch McConnell
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