Unanimous consent is a way to bypass unnecessary bureaucracy in the United States Senate and is often used for routine matters or recognizing achievements. It can also be used for controversial measures to limit debate time, but it doesn’t necessarily mean all senators support the proposal.
The United States Senate is very strict on its rules of order. Things must be done in the prescribed manner or any action taken can be ruled invalid, causing the proposal to start from the beginning of the process once again. However, some of these procedures are simply unnecessary and a waste of time. Unanimous consent is a way around some of this bureaucracy.
While many Americans may believe that the Senate is nothing more than a partisan scream party, there are a number of elements that win unanimous, or nearly unanimous, support. These occur almost daily. Normally, most Americans don’t hear about these actions simply because they aren’t controversial enough to warrant mass media coverage. If they were, they probably wouldn’t be candidates for this method.
Unanimous consent is often used to address issues that do not concern the majority of the American population. In some cases, Senators may want to recognize a constituency in their state that has achieved a special milestone, such as a company celebrating a centennial. In other cases, Senators may request that a flag flown on the United States Capitol be donated to someone or some organization for a particular reason. These items are often routine in nature and can be handled with unanimous consent. Treaties and other similar measures can also be presented to the Senate this way.
Although most unanimous consent agreements are for routine matters or are important to an individual senator but are unlikely to be worth the body’s time as a whole, some controversial measures may also have a unanimous agreement component. Often, senators from both sides of the aisle can agree to limit the time used to discuss one of these proposals in this way. While a vote to pass a controversial bill or resolution won’t be done unanimously, the deal could influence debate on the proposal.
Just because an issue passes a unanimous consensus proposal doesn’t mean it has the support of all senators. In some cases, a senator may oppose a proposal but understand that he has broad support for passage. To save time, that senator can unanimously agree, knowing that he is fighting a losing battle.
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