This was a vote on a motion to table (kill) an effort to appeal the Speaker’s ruling that a motion to recommit on an unemployment insurance extension bill violated House rules. The motion to recommit would have required that unspent funds from the economic stimulus bill enacted in February 2009 be used to pay for legislation extending unemployment insurance. (The economic stimulus measure was enacted in response to the financial crisis in 2009.)

A motion to recommit with instructions is the minority's last chance to make substantive changes to a bill before a final up-or-down vote on the measure. If successful, the motion sends the legislation back to committee with instructions to amend the legislation as specified.

Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) urged support for the motion to recommit: “We know that the stimulus hasn't worked. In its wake, nearly 3 million private-sector jobs were lost, unemployed soared to 10 percent nationwide, and 48 out of 50 States lost jobs. So this motion to recommit pays for the $34 billion in Federal unemployment costs by cutting that much in unspent stimulus spending.”

Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) argued that the motion to recommit violated House rules since it was unrelated to the unemployment bill: “This is not a germane amendment. Also what it is, is an effort to use emergency funds targeted to create jobs to fund emergency unemployment insurance.”

The Speaker ruled in Levin’s favor, agreeing that the motion to recommit violated House rules. Camp then appealed the Speaker’s ruling. Levin then made a motion to table (kill) Camp’s appeal.

The House tabled Camp’s appeal by a vote of 220-196. 220 Democrats – including a majority of progressives – voted “yea.” 169 Republicans and 27 Democrats voted “nay.” As a result, the House tabled Camp’s appeal of the Speaker’s ruling that a motion to recommit (that would have required that unspent funds from the economic stimulus bill enacted in February, 2009 be used to pay for legislation extending unemployment insurance) violated House rules.