In the United States, members of the House of Representatives cannot
filibuster as debate there is limited in time. At the behest of
President Woodrow Wilson, cloture rules were adopted by the U.S.
Senate in Rule 22 in 1917 (and amended in 1949, 1959, and 1975).
Debate now can be limited to a further 30 hours with the vote of
three-fifths (originally two thirds) of the full Senate membership. In
the British House of Commons, cloture was introduced in 1822 and
requires at least 100 affirmative votes.
In August 1957, Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina spoke for 24
hours and 18 minutes in opposition to a civil rights measure. This is
the American filibuster record. In 1964, a group of southern senators
led by Russell Long of Louisiana extended the debate on the Civil
Rights Act for 74 days.
Filibuster is originally a Dutch word meaning "pirate, hijacker". In
Spanish "filibustero" meant "freebooting" and applied to 16th century
privateers. Irregular military adventurers, mercenaries and
guerrilleros in the 19th century were also called "filibusters".
http://www.senate.gov/reference/glossary_term/filibuster.
Pages:
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74