The U.S. Senate generally requires 60 votes to invoke cloture and advance most legislation or procedural measures, so a party with fewer than 60 seats must gain support from members of other parties to overcome filibusters.
October 08, 2025
high
temporal
Senate procedural rules governing cloture and legislative advancement.
In the U.S. Senate, packaging multiple appropriations bills for consideration often requires unanimous consent.
October 08, 2025
high
procedural
Senate floor procedure for handling bundled appropriations legislation.
A congressional conference committee is the formal mechanism by which the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate reconcile differences between their versions of a bill.
October 08, 2025
high
procedural
Standard legislative process for resolving House-Senate disagreements on legislation.
An individual appropriations bill that has already been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives can be brought to the U.S. Senate floor for consideration.
October 08, 2025
high
procedural
Procedure for Senate consideration of House-passed appropriations measures.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate that conducts hearings at which officials may provide testimony.
October 07, 2025
high
institutional
Describes the committee's oversight role in the legislative branch and its use of hearings to take testimony from executive-branch officials and others.
The U.S. Senate requires 60 votes to invoke cloture and thereby advance most legislation.
October 07, 2025
high
procedural
Senate filibuster/cloture threshold for advancing legislation.
Chuck Schumer was serving as Senate Minority Leader in the United States Senate as of 2025-10-05.
October 05, 2025
high
temporal
Leader of the Senate's minority party, responsible for coordinating minority party strategy.
Invoking the 'nuclear option' in the U.S. Senate is a procedure that uses a simple majority to change chamber rules to allow unlimited groups of nominees to be voted on at once.
September 11, 2025
high
procedural
Defines a Senate procedure for altering confirmation rules to permit bulk votes on nominees.
The U.S. Senate conducts confirmations for nominees to both the executive branch and the judicial branch.
September 11, 2025
high
structural
Describes the institutional scope of Senate confirmation responsibilities.
Mark Warner and Tim Kaine were the two Democratic U.S. senators representing the state of Virginia in 2025.
January 01, 2025
high
temporal
U.S. Senate representation for Virginia.
Most members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have an annual base salary of $174,000, a figure that was last changed in 2009.
January 01, 2009
high
temporal
Baseline congressional compensation for rank-and-file members
The last time Kentucky elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate was in 1992 when Wendell Ford won re-election.
January 01, 1992
high
temporal
Historical partisan outcome for Kentucky's U.S. Senate elections.
Mitch McConnell has held the U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky since 1985.
January 01, 1985
high
temporal
Tenure of the U.S. Senator representing Kentucky.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is a committee of the U.S. Senate that has leadership roles including a vice chairman and can hold closed-door briefings.
high
general
Structure and procedural practices of a standing Senate committee.
The U.S. Senate can adopt a majority-vote rule change (commonly called the "nuclear option") to permit confirmation of nominees by a simple majority rather than a supermajority.
high
procedural
Describes a Senate procedural mechanism for changing confirmation vote thresholds.
Subcabinet-level nominees that have bipartisan support in committee are commonly expedited in the U.S. Senate through unanimous consent or by a voice vote.
high
procedural
Describes typical fast-track Senate practices for noncontroversial nominees.
A Senate rule change can be structured to allow an unlimited number of nominees to be considered and confirmed in a single batch, while still requiring specified procedural steps before final confirmation votes.
high
procedural
Describes how aggregate confirmation batches can be enabled by procedural rule changes.