[20150728]IN10329_填补参议院“修正案树”.pdf

CRS InsightsFilling the Senate Amendment TreeChristopher M. Davis, Analyst on Congress and the Legislative Process (cmdaviscrs.loc.gov, 7-0656)July 28, 2015 (IN10329)Observers of the legislative process on the Senate floor have heard Senators of both parties talk a lot in recent years about amendment trees.Amendment trees are diagrams that have developed over decades of Senate practice as a way of visualizing certain principles of precedence that govern the offering of, and voting on, amendments in the chamber. These principles of precedence are reflected in four charts published in the official compilation of Senate precedents that depict the maximum number and type of amendments that may be offered and simultaneously pending under various circumstances during consideration of a bill. http:/www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-RIDDICK-1992/pdf/GPO-RIDDICK-1992-7.pdf. These diagrams are widely and colloquially called trees by Senators and staff because the various first- and second-degree amendments they depict are arguably reminiscent of limbs growing out from the bill itself as a central trunk. Which of the four amendment tree charts will be applicable at a given point during consideration