TO SUSPEND THE RULES AND PASS THE BILL S. 4522 (38 STAT. 1196, 3/4/1915), AMENDING AN ACT REGULATING COMMERCE, APPROVED FEB. 4, 1887, AND ALL ACTS AMENDATORY THEREOF, AND TO ENLARGE THE POWERS OF THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION, APPROVED JUNE 29, 1906, AS AMENDED. (P.5451)

Number:
House Vote #280 [primary source: Professor Keith Poole]
Date:
Mar 03, 1915 (63rd Congress)
Result:
unknown
Totals     Democrat     Republican     Progressive     Independent     Unknown
  Aye 250
 
 
 
 
 
57%
197 44 8 0 1
  Nay 66
 
 
 
 
 
15%
13 52 0 1 0
Present 3
 
 
 
 
 
1%
2 0 1 0 0
Not Voting 116
 
 
 
 
 
27%
77 39 0 0 0
Required: unknown

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.)