This was a vote on an amendment by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) eliminating $42.7 million in funding for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), which was established to help resolve international conflicts peacefully. This amendment was offered to legislation funding the federal government (such bills are known as “continuing resolutions, or “CRs”) through September 2011, and cutting $61 billion in federal funding for many government programs.

Weiner (D-NY) urged support for his amendment: “…It is incumbent on all of us to…[see] opportunities where we can find things in the budget that perhaps we can do without. Just like in the eighties when there were so many of the programs we felt important to us came under attack during the Reagan years, it sharpened our focus and it made us come up with better and better programs that dealt with some of the critique of our opponents. We need to do that now as well. The idea of weeding out government waste is a Democratic progressive ideal….should we be spending $100 million of taxpayer money to build a think tank, a giant headquarters a stone's throw from the State Department?... This is a moment that we progressives have to embrace. There's a lot of waste. They didn't get a lot of it, the other [Republican] side of the aisle. And I think that we should be looking for opportunities to say maybe we can do things a little bit differently.”

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) opposed the amendment: “…The U.S. Government simply must have options for solving international conflict other than military action or international diplomacy. USIP is the only independent U.S. government actor that is dedicated solely to conflict mediation and resolution. For example, in both Afghanistan and Iraq, USIP has been on the ground since the beginning of these conflicts, actively bringing together parties to the conflict and building an agenda for the resolution of these conflicts, resulting in less need for American troops and paving the way for stabilization efforts.”

The House agreed to this amendment by a vote of 268-163. Voting “yea” were 226 Republicans and 42 Democrats. 150 Democrats—including a majority of progressives—and 13 Republicans voted “nay.” As a result, the House agreed to an amendment eliminating $42.7 million in funding for the United States Institute of Peace.