A Senator who has the floor for purposes of debate must remain standing and must speak more or less continuously.
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Complying with these requirements obviously becomes more of a strain as time passes. However, Senators must be careful when they try to give some relief to their colleagues who are speaking.
Senate precedents prohibit Senators from yielding the floor to each other. To gain the floor, a Senator must seek recognition from the presiding officer. Thus, if a Senator simply yields to a colleague, he or she has yielded (relinquished) the floor, however inadvertently. This is another one of those Senate procedures that often is
not observed during the normal conduct of business on the floor. But during filibusters, Senators are much more likely to insist on it being observed.
A Senator may yield to a colleague without losing the floor only if the Senator yields for a question.
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With this in mind, a colleague of a filibustering Senator may give that Senator some relief by asking him or her to yield for a question. The
Senator who retains control of the floor must remain standing while the question is
being asked. The peculiar advantage of this tactic is that it sometimes takes Senators quite some time to ask their question, and the presiding officer is reluctant to force them to state their question before they are ready to do so. In this way, participating Senators can extend the debate through an exchange of what sometimes are long
questions followed by short answers, rather than by relying exclusively on a series of long, uninterrupted speeches.

Quorums and Quorum Calls

There are ways other than debate by which Senators can delay and sometimes even prevent the Senate from voting on a question that it is considering. For example, each amendment that is offered on the Senate floor must be read in full before debate on it can begin, although the Senate usually agrees by unanimous consent to waive the reading. In addition, quorum calls can be demanded not for the
purpose of confirmingor securing the presence of a quorum, but in order to consume time.

A Senator who has been recognized can "suggest the absence of a quorum," asking in effect whether the Senate is complying with the constitutional requirement that a quorum--a majority of all Senators--be present for the Senate to conduct
business. The presiding officer normally does not have the authority to count to determine whether a quorum actually is present (which is rarely the case), and so directs the clerk to call the roll.
Senators usually use quorum calls to suspend the Senate's floor proceedings temporarily, perhaps to discuss a procedural or policyproblem or to await the arrival of a certain Senator. In those cases, the clerk calls the roll very slowly and, before
the call of the roll is completed, the Senate agrees by unanimous consent to call off the quorum call (to "dispense with further proceedings under the quorum call").

Because the absence of a quorum has not actually been demonstrated, the Senate can resume its business. Such quorum calls can be time-consuming and so can serve the interests of filibustering Senators.

During a filibuster, however, the clerk may be directed to call the roll more rapidly, as if a roll call vote were in progress. Doing so reduces the time that the quorum call consumes, but it also creates the real possibility that the quorum call may demonstrate that a quorum in fact is not present. In that case, the Senate has only two
options: to adjourn, or to take steps necessary to secure the presence of enough absent Senators to create a quorum. Typically, the majority leader or the majority floor manager opts for the latter course, and makes a motion that the sergeant at arms secure the attendance of absent Senators, and then asks for a roll call vote on that motion.

Senators who did not respond to the quorum call are likely to come to the floor for the roll call vote on this motion. Almost always, therefore, the vote establishes that a quorum is present, so the Senate can resume its business without the sergeant at arms actually having to execute the Senate's directive.

This process also can be time-consuming because of the time required to conduct the roll call vote just discussed. Nonetheless, the proponents of the bill (or other matter) being filibustered may prefer that the roll be called quickly because it
requires unanimous consent to call off a routine quorum call, in which the clerk calls
the roll very slowly, before it is completed. A filibustering Senator has only to suggest the absence of a quorum and then object to calling off the quorum call in order to provoke a motion to secure the attendance of absentees and (with the support of at least 10 other Senators) a roll call vote on that motion. If this motion is likely
to be necessary, one way or the other, it is usually in the interests of the bill's proponents to have the motion made (and agreed to) as soon as possible.

When Senators suggest the absence of a quorum, however, they lose the floor. Also, "[i]t is not in order for a Senator to demand a quorum call if no business has intervened since the last call; business must intervene before a second quorum call or between calls if the question is raised or a point of order made."

These restrictions limit the extent to which quorum calls may be used as means of conducting
filibusters.

;)

Latino Político | "We are condemned to kill time, thus we die bit by bit." - Octavio Paz