On Agreeing to the Amendment: Amendment 18 to H R 1817

Number:
House Vote #185 [primary source: house.gov]
Date:
May 18, 2005 (109th Congress)
Result:
Agreed to
Bill:
H.R. 1817 (109th): Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006
Introduced by Rep. Christopher Cox [R-CA48, 2003-2005] on April 26, 2005
Current Status: Passed House

This was a vote to approve or reject an amendment.

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Totals     Republican     Democrat     Independent
  Aye 242
 
 
 
56%
216 26 0
  No 185
 
 
 
43%
11 173 1
Not Voting 6
 
 
 
1%
3 3 0
Required: Simple Majority

Vote Details

Notes

Where is the Speaker’s vote?

According to current House rules, the Speaker of the House is not required to vote in “ordinary legislative proceedings, except when such vote would be decisive.” In practice, this means the Speaker of the House rarely votes and only does so when it is politically useful. When the Speaker declines to vote, he or she is simply omitted from the roll call by the House Clerk.

What’s the difference between aye and yea?

There is no meaningful difference between aye and yea (and nay and no), but the terms are used in different sorts of votes based on Congress’s long tradition of parliamentary procedure. The House and Senate follow the U.S. Constitution strictly when it says that bills should be decided on by the “yeas and nays” (Article I, Section 7). The House sometimes operates under a special set of rules called the “Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union” (or “Committee of the Whole” for short), which is a sort of pseudo-committee that is made up of every congressman. During this mode of operation, the House uses the terms “aye” and “no” instead. (See the Rules of the House, Rule XX, and House Practice in the section Voting.)