This vote was on whether to allow to go forward a bill that would extend for varying lengths of time, mostly around a year, several programs that would otherwise have expired within a month. These include unemployment benefits, heath insurance subsidies for the unemployed, small business loans, flood insurance and other items.

George LeMieux, R-Fla., attempted to defeat the bill with a parliamentary maneuver, saying it violated the Senate’s budgetary rules. Max Baucus, D-Mont., then made a motion to waive the rules in this case, which is what this vote was on.

Lemieux said the bill attempts to do laudable things, but “the challenge is we are not going to pay for these spending programs. We are going to put them on the backs of our children and grandchildren.”

“Let’s do these good programs, but let’s take a novel approach and let’s pay for them,” he said

Max Baucus, D-Mont., said Lemieux’s motion is a “killer motion.”

“This … kills jobs. This amendment tells people who are currently unemployed: You are not going to get an unemployment check. This amendment tells people who are trying to get health insurance under COBRA: Sorry, no more. This amendment tells doctors who are trying to take care of patients, Medicare patients, that they are not going to get paid what they should be paid,” Baucus said.

By a vote of 60-37, the motion to waive the rules and allow the bill to go forward was agreed to. Every Democrat present voted to waive the rules. All but one Republican voted against waiving the rules. The end result is that the Senate waived its rules, thereby defeating a parliamentary maneuver to kill a bill that would extend expiring programs, including health insurance premiums for the unemployed, unemployment benefits, and other items.