No problem. Here's a copy of the email I sent off to my representative, the Honorable Jim Ryun. It should shed some light. I'll pull up a link to the actual resolution and comments about it also.
To the Honorable Jim Ryun,
I was at first confused and then shocked at what I watched on C-SPAN this afternoon. I occasionally flip past that channel and try to figure out what is being voted on. This afternoon I caught the end of debate on HR-3893 and what was slated to be a 5 minute vote on the issue. It was immediately apparent that the vote was close, so I sat and watched. I was intrigued to see that while the majority of the votes fell along party lines, more republicans voted nay than democrats voted yea and after the voting time expired, the resolution was voted down.
Then I noticed some more votes being placed, which is fairly normal from what I've seen, but I also noticed that elected officials began to call for the vote to be closed and they were continually put down or ignored by the chair. I coached debate at the high school level and taught parlaimentary procedure, so I understand that process fairly well. When votes suddenly began changing, my confusion turned to shock as I realized that pressure was being applied to elected officials who had voted their conscience and constituence to change their votes along party lines.
Eventually, the voting shifted to a 1 vote difference, 210 for, 212 against. Then, after repeated attempts to close the vote over a half hour after the vote should have closed, the votes shifted to a tie and to a 1 vote difference in favor. At that point, the chair called the vote closed, announced passage of the resolution, and then moved straight into a vote on honoring Simon Wiesenthal, effectively quelling any discussion without dishonoring that great person.
What use is my vote in an election if my elected officials are coerced to change their heartfelt and considered vote to pass legislation that is abhorent to folks like me? This is the government that I'm supposed to trust with the welfare of my children and my parents? What a disgrace!
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-3893
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-07-oil-votehouse_x.htm