This vote was on a motion to send the bill that funds housing and transportation programs in fiscal 2010 back to the Appropriations Committee to have $12.7 billion in funding deleted from the bill’s total.  The motion was made by John Ensign, R-Nev.

Ensign said he is asking that the bill be rewritten to hold spending to the same level as what was spent for these programs last year.

“So this is a very simple motion. This just says: Let’s start taking these appropriations bills and let’s at least start freezing spending. That is basically what this motion suggests. It just says: Freeze spending,” Ensign said.  “By the way, a lot of the programs that are in this bill were already dramatically increased in the stimulus bill. So not only did we increase last year over the previous year with the regular appropriations process, we then added money to the stimulus bill on top of that.”

Patty Murray, D-Wash., said simply that the funding levels in the bill are consistent with the spending targets passed earlier in the year by the Senate, and $1.2 billion less than what was requested by President Obama.

“We worked very hard to balance the important safety, transportation and accounting needs of this Nation. We urge you to defeat this amendment,” Murray said.

By a vote of 33-64, the motion was rejected.  All but nine Republicans present voted for the motion.  All but two Democrats present voted against the motion.  The end result is that the motion to cut $12.7 billion in spending from the fiscal 2010 transportation and housing bill failed.