From the Congressional Glossary – Including Legislative and Budget Terms
Cluster Voting
Why back-in parking sucks, public outcry in Victor Idaho
Cluster Voting: Allowance for sequential recorded votes on a series of measures or amendments that the House finished debating at an earlier time or on a previous date. The Speaker may reduce the minimum time for the second and subsequent votes in a series of five minutes each. The chair of the Committee of the Whole may reduce the minimum time for the second and subsequent votes in a series to two minutes each. The chair of the Committee of the Whole may also postpone or cluster votes on amendments and reduce to not less than two minutes the time for clustered votes after a fifteen-minute vote on the first amendment in a series.
The Speaker has discretionary authority under clause 8 of House Rule XX to postpone certain questions and to “cluster” them for voting at a designated time or place in the legislative schedule, and, after the vote on the first such question, to reduce to five minutes the vote on all of the additional questions so postponed.
House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House. Chapter 58 Voting. Sec. 23. Postponed and Clustered Votes in the House
Also see: Committee of the Whole; Recorded Vote; Voice Vote; Vote; § 6.90 Rules Committee and Special Rules, in Congressional Deskbook.
More
- House Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents and Procedures of the House, Govinfo.gov
- House Rule XX – Voting And Quorum Calls
- “House Voting Procedures: Forms and Requirements,” CRS Report 98-228 (9-page PDF
) - “Congressional Roll Call and Other Record Votes: First Congress Through 108th Congress, 1789 Through 2004,” CRS Report RL30562 (18-page PDF)
- “Suspension of the Rules in the House of Representatives,” CRS Report RL32474 (53-page PDF)
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