On Agreeing to the Amendment: Amendment 20 to H R 2847

Number:
House Vote #371 [primary source: house.gov]
Date:
Jun 18, 2009 (111th Congress)
Result:
Agreed to
Bill:
H.R. 2847 (111th): Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act
Introduced by Rep. Alan Mollohan [D-WV1, 1983-2010] on June 12, 2009
Current Status: Signed by the President

This was a vote to approve or reject an amendment.

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Totals     Democrat     Republican
  Aye 417
 
 
95%
246 171
  No 1
 
 
0%
1 0
Not Voting 21
 
 
5%
13 8
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.)