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Quorum
The minimum number of people necessary for a legislative body to pass a bill. In the United States, Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution states that a quorum of both houses of Congress exists when there is a majority present; the Senate Rules of Order further stipulate that the majority be composed of those “duly chosen and sworn.” A practice known as “quorum-busting” occurs when members of a legislative body are purposefully absent to avoid a vote on and subsequent passage of a bill. Although this strategy has been used successfully to prevent the passage of legislation in state legislatures, the Senate was granted the authority in 1877 to arrest members for quorum busting. The Senate has occasionally made such arrests; the first act ...