This was a vote on an amendment by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) increasing funding for state programs serving children with disabilities by $557 million, but cutting $337 million in funding for education grants to low-income school districts, and cutting $500 million in funding for grants to states to improve poorly-performing schools. This amendment was offered to legislation funding the federal government (such bills are known as “continuing resolutions, or “CRs”) through September 2011, and cutting $61 billion in federal funding for many government programs.

McMorris Rodgers urged support for the bill: “…35 years ago Congress recognized that too many special needs children were being denied an education and the opportunity to maximize their potential and contribution to our society, and 35 years ago severely disabled children who were confined to state institutions received no education. Special needs students did not attend school. They were kept out of classrooms, receiving little education. Today…Special needs children are no longer confined to institutions. The number of special needs students who graduate high school with a diploma has increased. … we have increased our nation's expectations of our children. But more can and must be done.”

Rep. George Miller (D-CA) opposed the amendment: “Poor children need access to high-quality education and students with disabilities need access to high-quality education. The kind of barbaric attitude that is being carried out here in terms of playing these two populations off against one another is simply outrageous. It's unfair to the students with disabilities because it is being done in their name, and we know how desperate they and their families are for education and for the resources to carry out that education. And in their name, we are stripping the resources from some of the poorest children, and also some of the poorest children with disabilities we're stripping the resources for them.”

The House agreed to this amendment by a vote of 249-179. Voting “yea” were 232 Republicans and 17 Democrats. 174 Democrats and 5 Republicans voted “nay.” As a result, the House agreed to an amendment increasing funding for state programs serving children with disabilities by $557 million, but cutting $337 million in funding for education grants to low-income school districts, and cutting $500 million in funding for grants to states to improve poorly-performing schools.