H.R. 3288 provided fiscal year 2010 funding bill for the Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Transportation. This was a vote on a motion made by Rep. Latham (R-IA) to recommit (send the bill back) to the Appropriations Committee. The motion also included instructions to the committee to reduce the spending figures in any category that exceed the amount requested by the Obama Administration to those requested levels.

Rep. Latham (R-IA), the Ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee subcommittee that developed H.R. 3288, said he “would be a strong supporter of this bill if the funding levels weren't so astronomically out of proportion with the current reality.” He noted that the total funding in H.R. 3288 was 25% higher than the equivalent fiscal year '09 level, an increase he referred to as “absurd, especially in the context of the huge sums of funding provided to the Department of Transportation and HUD through the (previously-passed economic) stimulus bill.” Latham also said: “(T)his bill would fund these agencies at $68 billion on top of the more than $61.8 billion they received through the stimulus. How can these agencies possibly spend through this funding in an efficient and effective manner? So in response to this reckless pattern, my motion . . . saves the U.S. taxpayers $5.4 billion.”

Rep. Olver (D-MA), the chairman of the Appropriations Committee subcommittee that developed HR. 3288, opposed the amendment. He said that his subcommittee had “taken an independent view” of the spending levels. Olver contrasted that approach with what he called the “rubber-stamping” that the subcommittee did when it was controlled by the Republicans and it reviewed the budgets submitted by the Bush Administration. Olver also said that the increases in the bill above the levels submitted by the Obama Administration were to do “something more for vulnerable populations.” He cited as an example the increase in the Section 8 rental subsidy program, which he said was made because “the needs got greater from when the requests were made (by the Obama Administration) . . . because there are more people out of work than there were at the time the request was made . . . .”

The motion was defeated by a vote of 192-225. One hundred and seventy Republicans and twenty-two Democrats voted “aye”. Two hundred and twenty-four Democrats and one Republican voted “nay”. As a result, the bill providing the 2010 fiscal year funding for the HUD and the Department of Transportation was not sent back to committee to have the levels reduced, and the House moved immediately to a vote on its passage.