what legislative bills require majority votes only and what bills require super majority votes., and are the rules the same in the House as in the senate?
In the U.S. Congress, most bills require a simple majority. The main exception is that you need a 2/3rd majority to override a presidential veto or to amend the Constitution.
In addition, the Senate has a rule to invoke cloture (i.e., stop debate on a bill and call it for a vote – the Senate can debate as long as one member wants to debate). I belive that’s currently at 60%.
The Senate also must approve treaties by a 2/3 vote, I believe. (The House is not involved in treate ratification.)
There was talk back in the early and mid-90’s of passing a law which would state that future tax increases could only be passed with a 3/5 majority. It never passed, but had it, it would clearly be unconsitutional and there would be nothing stopping Congress from ignoring it or from repealing it with a simple majority vote.
–Cliffy
Under the Constitution the following actions require a two thirds majority:
(a) approval of a treaty (Senate only)
(b) approval of a Constitutional amendment
© override of a presidential veto
(d) expulsion of a member
(e) conviction on an article of impeachment (Senate only)
Beyond that, the rules of each house specify when a supermajority is needed. The Senate, as has been noted, requires a majority of three fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn to invoke cloture and limit debate. The House, like most parliamentary bodies, requires a two thirds majority for a motion to suspend the rules, which is sometimes necessary to pass legislation late in a session. Finally, as C-SPAN junkies know, both houses allow many actions to be taken only by unanimous consent. (“I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks.” Yeah, like anybody cares!)
The actions for which a member typically asks unanimous consent–for example, permission for revising and extending one’s remarks as they will appear in the Congressional Record–generally require only a simple majority. The unanimous-consent device simply allows the debate and formal vote to be dispensed with. The presiding officer’s usual response to a unanimous-consent request is, “Without objection, so ordered.” But theoretically, if anyone did object, then the request would require a vote, in most cases a simple majority.