This vote was on an amendment by Tom Coburn, R-Okla., that would have rescinded (taken back) $245 million in unspent funding under the fiscal 2010 appropriations bill that funds the operations of the legislative branch.  It also would prohibit Senate offices from mailing postcards to constituents that contain the locations of town hall-style meetings attended by the senator.  The amendment was offered to a bill that would increase the statutory debt limit by $1.9 trillion to $14.29 trillion.

“This amendment rescinds our increase for our operations. We increased our budget 5.8 percent at a time when there was no inflation last year, zero. The year before that, we had increased our budget in excess of 10.9 percent, which means we effectively increased our own budgets to run our own operations 17 percent in the last 2 years, with less than 1 percent inflation over that period. If, in fact, we can’t lead by example to cut our own budgets to help the country move out of the problem it is having, it is probably because we are not very good managers of our own budgets, which belies the problem we now face,” Coburn said.

Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said this particular spending bill covers the expenses of Congress, but that it also covers the expenses of several other important related bodies, such as the Government Accountability Office, which functions as Congress’ nonpartisan investigative arm for waste, fraud and abuse in programs.

“Let me suggest something else. When you start to leave this evening to go home and you drive by the gate out here and you see, in the dark, men and women in uniform risking their lives for us and for the visitors to the Capitol, remember this vote. This vote cuts funds for the Capitol Police and security in the Capitol,” Durbin said.

By a vote of 46-48, the amendment was rejected.  All but one Republican present voted for the amendment.  Of Democrats present, 9 voted for the amendment and 45 voted against it (including the most progressive members).  The end result is that the measure went forward without language that would have taken back $245 million in unspent legislative branch operations funding from the prior year.