Amash Amendment on NSA Reform Being Debated on the House Floor Now

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House

The House is currently debating the Amash Amendment to the latest defense spending bill, with a vote to follow. You can watch live here or follow Reason 24/7 live tweeting here.

Update: Amash amendment failed by a voice vote. Recorded vote to follow.

Update: Amash amendment fails 205-217. Blog post with the ayes and nays when they become available.

Comments

[anon]

Is it sad that I'm curious about the debate, or is it sad that I already know it's dead in the water?

[anon]

"We are at war!"

Fucking piece of shit.

[John Thacker]

Amash amendment failed by a voice vote.

Strictly speaking, this doesn't mean anything other than the presiding officer wanted to pretend that it failed, and maybe it was close.

[Tonio]

The Amish? Why is congress debating the Amish at a time like this?

[anon]

All about the jerbz dood.

Someone's gotta make those wagon wheels.

[Scarecrow Repair]

No, the Famished. Lunch is coming up, had to get it over with. You know, with all the hams in office, not to mention the nuts and flakes. Not very many fruits.

[anon]

My vote prediction: 100 yea 230 nay 5 nv

[anon]

And wow did I fuck that up. Supposed to be a 100 more in there somewhere.

[John Jay.]

180 yea, 245 nay, 10 NV

(And you've just revived my long-dormant interest in starting a Fantasy Congress League and throwing some money around.)

[anon]

Intrade (I think) would save you a lot of the work, except it's more market based.

[John Thacker]

You mean it would have if it hadn't been aggressively pursued by the federal government and then forced to close down.

[John Jay.]

I was going to say. Last I checked, I can't set up an account without engaging in some kind of probably-illegal money-transfer shenanigans.

[Laz]

Last I checked, Intrade was having SERIOUS problems.

"March 10, 2013
With sincere regret we must inform you that due to circumstances recently discovered we must immediately cease trading activity on http://www.intrade.com....

[John Jay.]

Well, closer than I thought.

[John Thacker]

Suggests it would have lost on a free vote, but both leaderships did enough to whip it.

[John Thacker]

Err, it would have won, leadership would have lost.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"both leaderships did enough to whip it."

Because this Amash guy is wrong
We must whip it
Before our freedom gets too strong
We must whip it

Yeah, vote vote vote!

[John Thacker]

Looks like they're gaveling it at 202-217, or thereabouts. Close, but a damn shame.

At least the Mulvaney Amendment to cut some defense spending passed earlier.

[John Thacker]

205-217 in the final count.

[Westmiller]

Correct. Republicans killed it, voting 92-134 against. Dems: 109-84.

Roll-call available in an hour or so from:
http://clerk.house.gov/cgi-bin.....&width=650

This was essentially a vote *against* the 4th Amendment.

[Apatheist ?_??]

Correct. Republicans killed it, voting 92-134 against. Dems: 109-84.

Bullshit, that's about as bipartisan a vote (in both directions) that we've had in years.

[John Thacker]

Combined efforts of leadership in both parties killed it. Probably could have "found" more Nay votes on either side if they needed them.

[John Thacker]

Leadership really got the committee chairs (and ranking members) in line, huh? Paul Ryan and Issa as two of the disappointing ones.

[Apatheist ?_??]

I don't see how the Paul Ryan vote is surprising. He's always been an establishment stooge.

[John Thacker]

You don't get to be in leadership without being willing to play ball, that's for sure. Didn't say he was a surprise, just that he was one of the many disappointments.

[John Thacker]

Pelosi voted No, as I believe did Steny Hoyer. So the No side had the better whipping and vote counting organization. The leadership of both sides (or the one status quo side) twisted some arms to win a close one.

[Sudden]

I'm kinda shocked at how close that one came down.

[anon]

Yeah, that was waay closer than I anticipated.

[John Thacker]

It won because both party leaderships twisted arms and did their whip counts correctly. Most stuff that is horribly unpopular but deemed necessary by the Establishment passes by small margins due to similar shenanigans.

[Jesus H. Christ]

Much closer than I expected, but a loss nonetheless. Damn. That would have been AMAZING if it had passed.

[All-Seeing Monocle]

I'm pleasantly surprised at how close it was... and now I'm even more disappointed.

[Scarecrow Repair]

I wonder how many NAYs were symbolic and would have switched to YEA before the final tally if their masters said to.

[Libertymike]

Good point as the leadership will sometimes "release" a member to vote against what the leadership wants if the leadership knows that it has the votes. This way, the member gets to trumpet his "independence".

[John Thacker]

Indeed. It's possible to win one where the majority leadership opposes (see Mulvaney/Van Hollen Amendment earlier in the day on DoD), but not easy when both leaderships oppose.

[[e-mail]]

This is closer than I've ever seen a vote where both party leadership opposed the measure.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Bipartisanshit.

[Apatheist ?_??]

My derptard congresswoman Jackson-Lee voted no. There is literally nothing she votes right on.

[Guillotined]

I die inside when I think about the fact that she makes $175,000 a year to be a complete retard for her retarded constituents.

[MappRapp]

Dude that makes no sense at all man. QWow.

http://www.Global-Anon.com

[Knarf Yenrab (prev. An0nB0t)]

You need a anti-SOPA-style movement to get something this aggressively anti-statist through. There wasn't enough time or marshaling of the reddit people to bully the congressional weeds who blow in the wind into doing the right thing.

[John C. Randolph]

Much to my surprise, Mike Honda did the right thing. First time for everything, I guess.

-jcr