Congressional Glossary
What is the previous question?
The previous question is the House motion that cuts off debate and forces an immediate vote. It is the reason the House has no filibuster, and its absence in the Senate is the reason the Senate does.
In one sentence
The previous question is the House motion that cuts off debate and forces an immediate vote. It is the reason the House has no filibuster, and its absence in the Senate is the reason the Senate does.
Votes needed: A simple majority of the House
What the previous question does
"I move the previous question" is House shorthand for: stop talking, vote now. Ordering the previous question, which takes a simple majority, ends debate, blocks further amendments, and brings the pending matter to an immediate vote. It appears constantly in House floor proceedings, most often to close debate on the rules that structure each day's business (house.gov). A member who wants to keep debating has exactly one counter, voting the motion down, and losing that vote means the talking is over.
Why the House has no filibuster
The previous question is the whole answer. Any House majority can end any debate at any time, so no minority can hold the floor to block a vote. Debate in the House runs on a clock the majority controls. The fights that consume the Senate for weeks, breaking holds, assembling 60 votes, waiting out debate, simply do not exist on the House side of the Capitol. Rules debates make the point daily: one hour of argument, a previous question vote, and the House moves on.
The Senate deleted it and got the filibuster
The Senate once had a previous question rule too. In 1806, acting on Vice President Aaron Burr's parting advice that its rulebook carried redundant motions, the Senate dropped the rule. The deletion left the chamber with no way to close debate by majority vote, and the filibuster grew in that gap. The Senate did not regain a debate-ending tool until the cloture rule of 1917, and that one demands a supermajority rather than a simple majority (senate.gov).
Common questions
A motion that ends debate and forces an immediate vote on the pending matter. It needs only a simple majority and cannot itself be debated. The House uses it daily, which is why extended debate cannot block a vote there the way it can in the Senate.
Because the previous question motion lets a simple majority end debate whenever it chooses. The Senate dropped its previous question rule in 1806 and the filibuster grew in the gap; the House kept the motion, so a House majority always controls the clock.