The House just voted on the Omnibus Public Lands bill S.22 that passed the Senate several weeks ago. It failed to get the required 2/3 majority by 2 votes.
141 Republicans and 3 Democrats (Marshall, Boren and Peterson) voted against it.
The bill would have protected about 2 million acres of public land and wilderness.
Someone in the Democratic leadership screwed up the vote count!
Final Vote: 141 Republicans and 3 Dems Vote to kill Wilderness Bill
FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 117
S 22 2/3 YEA-AND-NAY 11-Mar-2009 12:38 PM
QUESTION: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended
BILL TITLE: Omnibus Public Land Management Act
Yeas Nays PRES NV
Democratic 248 3 3
Republican 34 141 3
Independent
TOTALS 282 144 6
It's uncertain what exactly will happen with the bill now. Back in January, S.22 passed the Senate after a successful 66-12 cloture vote, overcoming an attempted filibuster by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
Since the House version voted on today was a slightly amended version of the Senate bill, it would have had to go back to the Senate anyway and once again overcome a filibuster threat.
This is a setback to legislation that should have sailed through Congress, given the huge majorities it got in votes in both houses.
It seems...curious...that the House leadership would let it come to a vote today without knowing ahead of time that it would succeed.