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Comment by dragonwriter | Hacker News Reader

> Would it need 60% to get Senate cloture?

That depends on the applicable Senate rules (including any special one-time exceptions) at the moment when it is considered. Constitutionally, no, because supermajority cloture isn’t a Constitutional requirement (and, indeed, a key motivation for the Constitution was frustration with the effect of supermajority requirements in the Articles of Confederation making legislation impossible.)

EDIT: To summarize some of the downthread discussion: Assuming no special action, if brought up right now under the existing rules, “yes”.

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I am asking if congressional-executive agreements have an exception in the rules.

It does not need an exception. The thing about the filibuster rules is that they are only rules if the members of the Senate agree that they are. At any point they can change the rules, and can even just decide that a particular piece of legislation or legislative activity is so important that it can bypass the rules. A multi-national agreement that raises corporate tax rates on US companies operating outside the US is pure win for the party currently in control of both the legislative and executive branch; it plays well with the electorate, it is easy to weaponize against your opponents, and the actual impact to the companies caught up in the changes will not be as unpleasant as they may claim in public.

> A multi-national agreement that raises corporate tax rates on US companies operating outside the US is pure win for the party currently in control of both the legislative and executive branch; it plays well with the electorate, it is easy to weaponize against your opponents,

...and Manchin and Sinema will oppose any changes or exceptions to filibuster rules for it despite (or because of) all that, so it won't happen.

> I am asking if congressional-executive agreements have an exception in the rules.

Generally, no, not currently.

(“Fast track” authority for trade agreements includes, IIRC about the procedures associated with it, an exception for a specific subset of such agreements, but applies to agreements under guidelines and priorities set by Congress, which this agreement would not.)

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