This was a vote on a motion by Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) instructing the Sergeant-at-Arms to request the presence of all absent senators. The Sergeant-at-Arms is the chief law enforcement officer in the Senate. An appointee of the Majority Leader, he is responsible for compelling the presence of absent Senators during a quorum call. During routine quorum calls, this role doesn't come into play, but if a Senator or group of Senators are actively avoiding the chamber in order to prevent the Senate from having a sufficient number of lawmakers to conduct business, the Sergeant-at-Arms is charged with rounding them up, against their wills, if necessary.

Reid made this motion in order to address the full Senate on the subject of extending unemployment insurance and health insurance for laid-off workers. The motion was also intended to bring senators to the floor in order to reach an agreement on moving forward with legislation extending those programs.  Once all 93 senators present had come to the Senate floor, Reid indicated that the Senate would address the issue of unemployment insurance before leaving for its traditional Easter recess: “I am soon going to call up an adjournment resolution. But there has always been a misunderstanding as to what an adjournment resolution is. The mere fact we are going to adopt an adjournment resolution tonight does not mean we are going to run to the airports tonight.…We are going to be talking about the unemployment compensation extension….There is going to be some time spent tonight after this adjournment resolution is adopted, until about 9 or 9:30, talking about unemployment compensation.”

The Senate agreed to the motion instructing the Sergeant-at-Arms to request the presence of all absent senators by a vote of 58-35. All 58 Democrats present voted “yea.” All 35 Republicans present voted “nay.” As a result, the Senate agreed to a motion that required absent senators to come to the Senate floor, and was intended to help bring about an agreement on moving forward with legislation extending unemployment compensation and health insurance for laid-off workers.