The vote requires 60 votes, Right?

[liberal N proud]

If there are only 99 Senators with Fanken not seated why isn't the Majority adjusted down as well?

[sutz12]

1. Depends....

if they are voting cloture to end debate it takes 60.

If they are just voting to pass, a simple majority would do. But they need to end the Repub fillibuster to do that.

[tabatha]

2. nope, 51 this time

[liberal N proud]

3. Thanks for the info

[tabatha]

8. I was wrong - I was quoting something else I read - and it is indeed 60.

[Xenotime]

4. I will consider possibly changing my tune about pugs the they support obama tonight

Maybe.

[Pirate Smile]

5. Yes, it needs 60 because it is deficit spending.

Why will the stimulus require 60 votes to pass?
by David Waldman aka Kagro X
Sat Feb 07, 2009 at 04:55:03 PM PDT
To expand on the information provided earlier about why the stimulus package will require 60 votes to pass in the Senate, when I last left it, I'd provided only this:

The bill will be subject to a point of order due to its deficit spending, but the point of order can be waived by a 3/5 vote of the Senate. So that means passage would ultimately have required 60 votes whether Republicans filibustered or not.

But that's only about as much as you'll get from the traditional media. The bill will require 60 votes because it will. Go away. Stop asking. It's too intense for you!

Well, for most people perhaps, that's a valuable service. You know what's got to happen, and you have an inkling as to why. But for those of you who care to know exactly why, I'm going to see what I can do about that.

From what we can gather from the news, the 60 vote threshold is necessary because the bill violates "the Budget Act." And if your paper gives you the details, you can pick up that 60 votes are necessary to waive a point of order against bills that add to the deficit.

That's true. But I like to proceed on everything from the standpoint of insisting, "Prove it!" It's all usually quite true, but proving it to myself means I look up and learn the rules. And then I can write things on my blog that make crazy people want to read it. Then I think you get famous and win a million dollars or something.

So, what's "the Budget Act?" Well, it seems to be a lot of things. For one, it's the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, aka Titles I-IX of P.L. 93-344. (That's Public Law 93-344, or the 344th Public Law enacted by the 93rd Congress.) But it's also become a catch-all that's used to include a couple other related pieces of legislation that have amended the original Budget Act, like the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-177, aka Gramm-Rudman-Hollings), the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Reaffirmation Act of 1987 (P.L. 100-119), the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (Title XIII of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, P.L. 101-508), Title XIV of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-66), and Title X of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-33).

These pieces of legislation set up the current budgeting, authorization and appropriations process used by the Congress annually. Those terms, by the way, are not interchangeable. The links are to glossary definitions of the different kinds of bills that enact the different parts of the process, and it's useful to review them, not necessarily for this story, but for understanding future issues.

http://www.congressmatters.com/storyonly/2009/2/7/161443/9275

edit to add - if it only needed 51 then the White House wouldn't be flying Sherod Brown back from his mother's wake just to vote on it.

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. Wrong.

But the media whores have pushed that lie for so long, that even Spineless Reid believes it.

[Ocracoker16]

7. 60 votes are required because the bill increases the budget deficit

They require 3/5 of the Senate for this bill which will increase the deficit. However, after that all we will need is the usual 51 votes. I am sure some people will try to claim that we need 60 votes on other bills in the future. This is the exception not the rule.

[Wetzelbill]

9. 60 to override a filibuster

If it's given an up and down vote it's just the majority.

on edit:

This time I think it's different though, because it's deficit spending.

[Two Americas]

10. 90

If the Democrats had 90 votes it wouldn't be enough. 31 blue dogs would cross over, the Republicans would threaten a point of order or a filibuster, and the Democrats would cave. Then it would be back to committee to give the Republicans what they want.

[Two Americas]

11. duplicate n/t

...