An Interesting Insignificant Vote

One of the complaints voiced by Republicans, including Randy Kuhl, is that the House is conducting its business on a fast track, limiting amendments and debate. This was true for the first set of votes of the 100 hour agenda, but the last vote on meaningful legislation, HR 547, looks more like business as usual for the House.

HR 547 is a narrowly drawn bill that seeks to increase markets for alternative fuels. Of the 10 amendments offered to the bill, 7 were from Republicans. All passed, including one amendment offered by Charlie Dent (R-PA-15) which was opposed by a majority of Democrats.

Like every other major piece of legislation in the House, the vote was preceded by a Republican motion to refer the legislation back to committee for further consideration. As usual, that vote failed on party lines (with a few crossovers).

HR 547 is a tiny bill - two pages of text - on a generally agreed-upon topic, so it's probably hasty to draw too many conclusions about the way the Democrats intend to run the House. Nevertheless, it's an example of a bi-partisan legislative process, which was pretty rare in the last few sessions of Congress.