what does the word cloture mean as per us congress? thanks .

[unblock]

1. it is the end of debate, which allows the bill to proceed to a vote

without cloture (the french word for closure" ), there's no limit to "debate" in the senate, so a vote can be put off indefinitely.

so cloture is the end of a filibuster.


problem is, cloture requires 60 votes, even when passage of the actual bill only requires 51 (or 50 plus the veep to break the tie) so if opponents of a bill stick together and there are at least 41 of them, then cloture doesn't happen and the filibuster goes on and on.