This vote was on whether to end debate on a resolution that determined the ground rules for the House's consideration of standing rules that govern lawmakers' conduct for the 110th Congress. Every two years when a new Congress meets for the first time members have to agree on what's known as a "rules package," the rules that guide lawmakers' conduct both on and off the House floor. It governs everything from how debate is conducted to what lawmakers can accept from lobbyists to what privileges are afforded to the minority party. The rules package must be agreed to before any other business is conducted, and it sets the tone for the entire two-year Congress. The rules package proposed by the Democrats for the 110th Congress codified many campaign promises, including reforms to the ethics rules, curtailing the ability of lawmakers to secretly slip provisions into bills that only benefit narrow interests and making it more difficult for Congress to pass bills that increase the deficit. This vote was a motion ordering the previous question, which is a parliamentary maneuver that effectively ends debate, prohibits amendment and moves the House to a vote for an up-or-down of the resolution under consideration. If the motion for the previous question is defeated, the House in effect turns control of the floor over to the lawmaker who led the opposition to the question at hand, usually a member of the minority party. As such, motions to order the previous question are usually party-line votes, and the majority party almost always prevails. Such was the case for this vote, and all Republicans present voted against the measure and all Democrats present voted for it, and the motion passed 222-179. By successfully ordering the previous question, the Democrats moved toward establishing rules of consideration for how the rules package for the entire Congress would be debated. As a result, the Democrats retained control of the floor and moved one step closer to adopting the rules they wrote for the 110th Congress.