Standing Rules of the Senate
RULE XXX
EXECUTIVE SESSION - PROCEEDINGS ON TREATIES
1. (a) When a treaty shall be laid before the Senate for ratification,
it shall be read a first time; and no motion in respect to it shall be in order,
except to refer it to a committee, to print it in confidence for the use of
the Senate, or to remove the injunction of secrecy.
(b) When a treaty is reported from a committee with or without
amendment, it shall, unless the Senate unanimously otherwise directs, lie over
one day for consideration; after which it may be read a second time, after which
amendments may be proposed. At any stage of such proceedings the Senate may
remove the injunction of secrecy from the treaty.
(c) The decisions thus made shall be reduced to the form of a
resolution of ratification, with or without amendments, as the case may be,
which shall be proposed on a subsequent day, unless, by unanimous consent, the
Senate determine otherwise, at which stage no amendment to the treaty shall
be received unless by unanimous consent; but the resolution of ratification
when pending shall be open to amendment in the form of reservations, declarations,
statements, or understandings.
(d) On the final question to advise and consent to the ratification
in the form agreed to, the concurrence of twothirds of the Senators present
shall be necessary to determine it in the affirmative; but all other motions
and questions upon a treaty shall be decided by a majority vote, except a motion
to postpone indefinitely, which shall be decided by a vote of twothirds.
2. Treaties transmitted by the President to the Senate for ratification
shall be resumed at the second or any subsequent session of the same Congress
at the stage in which they were left at the final adjournment of the session
at which they were transmitted; but all proceedings on treaties shall terminate
with the Congress, and they shall be resumed at the commencement of the next
Congress as if no proceedings had previously been had thereon.
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