This was a vote on a motion to recommit that would have enabled people currently serving in the military and families of those who died while serving in the armed forces (known as “gold star families”) to benefit from the Home Assistance Modification Program (HAMP), which helped homeowners facing foreclosure to modify their home mortgage loans.  A motion to recommit with instructions is the minority's opportunity to torpedo or significantly change a bill before a final up-or-down vote on the measure. This motion to recommit was offered to legislation eliminating HAMP.

Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) urged support for this motion to recommit: “Even though the economy is beginning to recover, the housing market is still struggling. HAMP is currently helping 30,000 additional families every month. I would prefer that we keep this effort going for everyone. But if we are not about to, at a minimum we need to preserve this program for active military and gold star families. Regardless of how anyone feels about the underlying legislation and regardless of how anybody feels about the funding for the original legislation, we can all agree that we owe our men and women in uniform a tremendous debt of gratitude for their service and sacrifice. While defending our country, servicemembers should not be afraid that their families will lose the roof over their heads…”

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) opposed this motion to recommit: “The program that my colleague has offered this cynical motion to recommit for is merely a roadblock for us eliminating a failed government program….I would tell my colleagues that some have been helped in this program. But for every one person that's been helped, there's more than one other person that has actively been harmed. They deplete their savings, they ruin their credit, and their house is taken from them…. I ask my colleagues, do not subject our veterans, with this motion to recommit, to a failed program. We don't want our veterans to come home to a federal program that is actively harming them. And that's what this recommit does.”

The House rejected this motion to recommit by a vote of 185-238. Voting “yea” were 184 Democrats and 1 Republican. 235 Republicans and 3 Democrats voted “nay.” As a result, the House rejected a motion to recommit that would have enabled people currently serving in the military and families of those who died while serving in the armed forces to benefit from a program which helped homeowners facing foreclosure to modify their home mortgage loans.