This was a vote on a motion to table (kill) an appeal of a ruling of the House Speaker that a motion to prohibit federal funds from being used by the District of Columbia to perform abortions was out of order.

Rep. Tiahrt (R-KS) had moved to add language to the bill providing fiscal year 2010 federal funding for the District of Columbia. That language would have prohibited any funds in the bill from being used by the District to perform abortions. The motion to add that language had been ruled out of order by the Member who was sitting in the chair in the place of House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA). The basis of the ruling that had been appealed was that House procedures do not allow new law, such as Tiahrt was proposing, to be created in a spending bill.

Tiahrt began his remarks against the ruling and on behalf of his appeal by referring to the constitutional requirement that Congress oversee the expenditure of funds in the District of Columbia. He noted that: “(I)t has been said that we are sidestepping our responsibility, or overstepping our responsibility by becoming mayor and city council member for the District of Columbia. But, in fact, we (do) have a constitutional requirement to deal with the finances of the District of Columbia.” Tiahrt then said that many Members of Congress had “asked to have an opportunity to reduce the number of abortions (in the District of Columbia) . . . .” He urged that his motion to recommit be made in order “so that we can have this clean up-or-down vote on the restriction of (abortion) funds in this spending bill.”

The appeal was killed on a vote of 225-195. All two hundred and twenty-five “aye” votes were cast by Democrats. Twenty-six other Democrats joined one hundred and sixty-nine Republicans voted “nay”. As a result, the ruling of the chair prevailed. The House effectively decided not to prohibit the District of Columbia from using federal funds to perform abortions.