advice and consent

     The Constitution of the United States gives the president the power to make treaties and appointments with the "advice and consent" of the Senate. The president agrees to a treaty ( a deal made with another country ) , appoints someone to the Supreme Court,  appoints an ambassador ( our country's representative in a foreign country ) or chooses the head of a department of the federal government ( such as the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Attorney General ). The person the president appoints is called a nominee. The nominee doesn't actually have a job until the appointment has been confirmed by a majority ( of those present ) of the Senate.
     Treaties with foreign countries do not take effect until they have been approved by 2/3 of the Senators present.  If only a few Senators are present, the vote sometimes has to wait. The vote will wait for a "quorum"--the minimum number of Senators needed to vote on a particular type of bill or measure. What constitutes a quorum may differ, depending on the measure to be voted on. Congress has a set of rules for this, with a "Rules Committee" to see that the rules are enforced.

a quorum

     A quorum is the number of members of a club or organization necessary to conduct business. A quorum may be expressed as a number, or as the percentage of members present required to make a voting number, or quorum. A group with one hundred members may decide that no voting can take place unless fifty of them are present, for example. The United States Senate has a quorum of fifty-one. If there are fewer than fifty-one members present, the senate cannot vote on a bill. The House of Representatives has a quorum of two hundred and eighteen. Each house of congress requires that more than half of the members be present to vote on a bill, or the vote is postponed.