There was a rare sight on the House voting scoreboard Thursday afternoon toward the end of a roll call on the rule governing debate for a Financial Services spending bill: Majority Democrats were losing and everyone present had voted.
The Rules Committee writes guidelines for each controversial bill considered in the House, setting limits on debate and amendments. In order for a bill to get a vote, the rule must first be adopted by the House. Typically, the vote on the rule is perfunctory with the majority party supporting it and the minority opposing it.
But that wasn't the case with the Financial Services appropriations bill. The rule -- and the bill -- were imperiled by a combination of angst among socially conservative Democrats over the bill's loosening of abortion restrictions, frustration in both parties at an amendment roster that prevented alteration of hot-button social policy issues, and consternation in the carmaker-friendly Michigan delegation over a provision aimed at helping auto dealers hurt in bankruptcy courts.
Democratic leaders and aides scrambled to find supporters as the clock ticked down -- and even as Republicans chanted "Shame! Shame! Shame!" after it hit zero.
It was the Michigan Democratic lawmakers, most notably House dean John D. Dingell, who saved the rule -- and thus the underlying bill -- according to House Rules Chairwoman Louise M. Slaughter of New York.
"They changed their votes for which I am eternally grateful," said Slaughter, a Kentucky-born Democrat who represents a Rochester-to-Buffalo district in upstate New York. "This was a real sacrifice for them."
Fellow veteran Michigan Rep. Sander M. Levin said that his confidence that the auto dealer provision would not make it past House-Senate negotiations and his concern in protecting the abortion language led him to support the rule.
"I didn't want the rule to go down," said Levin, who spoke with Slaughter about his vote.
In the end, only two of Michigan's eight Democrats -- abortion foes Bart Stupak and Dale E. Kildee -- voted against the rule.
UPDATE: A source confirms that Michigan Reps. Dingell and Gary Peters were two of the last three votes in favor of the rule. Peters and Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, flipped into the "yea" column, reversing the outcome. Once Democrats had a 215-214 advantage, Dingell added his vote to make it 216-213, providing political cover for lawmakers who might otherwise be singled out as the deciding vote. A Dingell spokesman did not reply to a request for comment on why he changed his vote.
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