This was a vote on an amendment by Rep. Thomas Reed (R-NY) eliminating $10 million in funding for sewer construction in Tijuana, Mexico. This amendment was offered to legislation funding the federal government (such legislation is known as a “continuing resolution, or “CR”) through September 2011, and cutting $61 billion in federal funding for many government programs. This sewer project--which was funded by a U.S.-Mexico border environmental protection program--had been intended to address concerns by San Diego-area residents that human waste from Tijuna had washed up on their shores.  
 
Reed urged support for his amendment: “…Today I rise to ask that we…remove $10 million of spending on a sewer project in Tijuana, Mexico. When we are borrowing 40 cents on every dollar on the backs of our children and our grandchildren, I ask the question: Why are we spending $10 million so that a sewer could be constructed in Tijuana, Mexico?... rather than use our dollars, our borrowed dollars that are being absorbed by our children and grandchildren, we hold them [Tijuanans] accountable. And I think this is exactly what we should be doing and standing and calling out this kind of wasteful spending, in my opinion.”
 
Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-OH) argued that the underlying CR already cut funding for the U.S. Mexico Border program, and that Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needed to review the sewer project further before cutting additional funding for it: “ In the CR we have reduced the U.S.-Mexico border program by $7 million from $17 million in 2010 to $10 million in the continuing resolution. It's a 41 percent decrease….This is a program that we plan to have active discussions on with the EPA during the 2012 budget hearings, and we'll either build the case for further reductions, or we will have a better understanding of why we should look elsewhere for additional cuts based upon programmatic needs.”

The House agreed to this amendment by a vote of 228-203. Voting “yea” were 219 Republicans and 9 Democrats. 182 Democrats and 21 Republicans voted “nay.” As a result, the House agreed to an amendment eliminating $10 million in funding for sewer construction in Tijuana, Mexico.