HR3101 PASSED UNANIMOUSLY!

As of 3:35pm – A tweet from Pratik Patel (@ppatel) who is a New York entrepreneur, running a business, working at University, and a passionate advocate for the blind and other causes, with a huge announcement!

This is fantastic. #HR3101 passes with a unanimous vote in the House of Representatives.

UNANIMOUS???? No opposing vote? It is voice vote that was passed today at the House of Representative with no one opposing. Not even one “nay” been voiced! Pratik Patel witnessed it on C-SPAN channel today at around 3:35pm.

From Wikipedia, Voice vote (or viva voce, from the Latin, “live voice”) is a voting method used by deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding verbally.

From the senate.gov website: Voice Vote – A vote in which the Presiding Officer states the question, then asks those in favor and against to say “Yea” or “Nay,” respectively, and announces the result according to his or her judgment. The names or numbers of Senators voting on each side are not recorded.

Click TRANSCRIPT here and go to the time stamp of 00:54:22, that comes a video with a written transcript. (Hat tip to @ecnarb, Brance Long from Twitter!)

UPDATE:

From Office of the Clerk : U.S. House of Representatives

3:31 P.M. –
The Speaker announced that the House do now recess. The next meeting is subject to the call of the Chair.

H.R. 3101:
to ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to emerging Internet Protocol-based communication and video programming technologies in the 21st Century

3:30 P.M. –
At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.

(Clause 8 deals with electronic vote taking for counting individual vote in this case at a later time, and this means that they’ll combine the ADA resolution and HR3101 vote either today or tomorrow for an individual count. – @ppatel)

2:56 P.M. –
DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 3101.

Considered under suspension of the rules.

Mr. Markey (MA) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended.

H. Res. 1504:
recognizing and honoring the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

2:54 P.M. –
At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were demanded and ordered. Pursuant to the provisions of clause 8, rule XX, the Chair announced that further proceedings on the motion would be postponed.

2:22 P.M. –
DEBATE – The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H. Res. 1504.

Pratik Patel tweeted, “Passed by voice vote. They will take individual votes tonight.”

I’ll update this blog as soon as I know the final votes from the House of Representatives.

UPDATE II – ACTUAL ELECTRONIC VOTING.
The House of Representatives cast their votes for HR3101 at 7:00pm and the results are 348 Yeas, and 23 Nays, with 61 Non Votes. Breakdown: 220 Democrats and 128 Republicans voted yeas.

Link to the tally of votes here.
HR 3101 PASSED BY LANDSLIDE!

Names of Representatives (ALL REPUBLICANS) who voted no : —- NAYS 23 —

Bartlett; Campbell; Chaffetz; Conaway; Flake; Foxx; Franks (AZ); Garrett (NJ); Graves (GA); Hensarling; Johnson, Sam; Jordan (OH); King (IA); Kingston; Lamborn; Mack; McClintock; Miller (FL); Paul; Price (GA); Royce; Westmoreland; and Young (AK)

Holy moly! I cannot stop from jumping!

Take me to the doctor now… I’m hyperventilating!

photo credit goes to Dragon Wrangler at http://deborahtalmadge.blogspot.com/2009/12/im-back.html

Best,
Amy Cohen Efron