This was a procedural vote on a resolution setting a time limit for debate and prohibiting amendments to legislation requiring the House Budget Committee to set funding allocations for all federal programs (except those affecting national security) at 2008 levels or less.  (Specifically, the underlying legislation provided that federal spending on “non-security” programs could not exceed 2008 levels. The measure did not, however, define, “non-security.”) If passed, this particular procedural motion -- known as the “previous question" -- effectively ends debate and brings the pending legislation to an immediate vote.
 
Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) urged support for the resolution and the underlying measure: “Just as families and small businesses across this country have been forced to cut back during these difficult economic times, we here in this institution are going to have to do the same….Some federal programs… are wasteful and duplicative and deserve to be cut. There will be others that have merit, but which we simply cannot afford at the current levels. We have to be honest about that. We have to engage in a responsible debate about what our priorities must be.”

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) urged opposition to the resolution and the underlying measure: “…The resolution doesn't cut a single dollar--not one dime--from the federal budget. If this were a good-faith effort, there would be some numbers in this resolution. Instead, the resolution says that we should `assume non-security spending at fiscal year 2008 levels or less' without defining `non-security' spending or specifying exactly what those levels might be. In other words… this is a budget resolution without any numbers, which is why it is so meaningless…. the resolution walls off defense spending from the budget axe….Why then would they take hundreds of billions of dollars of potential savings off the table right out of the gate?”

The House agreed to the previous question motion by a vote of 238-174. All 232 Republicans present and 6 Democrats voted “yea.” 174 Democrats voted “nay.” As a result, the House proceeded to a final vote on a resolution setting a time limit for debate and prohibiting amendments to legislation requiring the House Budget Committee to set funding allocations for all federal programs (except those affecting national security) at 2008 levels or less.