In this vote, the House defeated a motion offered by Roy Blunt (R-MO) to table (kill) H. Res. 310. H.R. 310 was a resolution sponsored by House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) directing the House Ethics Committee to appoint a "non-partisan professional staff." Pelosi's resolution alleged that the Republican Chair of the Committee had hired and fired staff in a partisan manner. The resolution stated that these actions violated not only established precedent, but also House rules that mandate that hiring and firing of Committee staff be done in a bipartisan manner. The resolution also declared that "the Committee's resulting inability to carry out its duties has subjected the House to public ridicule and produced contempt for the ethics process, thus bringing discredit to the House." This early June resolution followed a bitter months-long disagreement between House Democrats and Republicans regarding House ethics rules for the 109th Congress. (Each two-year period beginning in January following congressional elections the previous November is considered a "Congress." The House adopts new rules to govern its proceedings at the beginning of each Congress.) In this dispute, Democrats charged that the Republicans had drafted rules that would permit the Committee simply to allow ethics charges-especially those made against Republicans-to fade away without taking any action on them at all. This resolution continued the acid debate on ethics in the 109th Congress. No debate was held on the floor of the House regarding this resolution. The House defeated Progressives on this vote when it tabled (killed) it by a straight party-line vote of 219 to 199. Thus, the highly charged disagreement between Democrats and Republicans with regard to the House Ethics Committee continued.