S.Amdt. 473 (Merkley) to S.Con.Res. 7: To establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to the impacts of hedge fund ownership of single-family homes and rent prices.

Amendment Rejected. Simple Majority Required. Independents are grouped with the party they caucus with.

Data from the official record at senate.gov.

The Nay votes represented 46% of the country’s population by apportioning each state’s population to its voting senators.

What was the procedure for this vote?

1. What was this vote on?Show Me Tips

Not all votes are meant to pass legislation. In the Senate some votes are not about legislation at all, since the Senate must vote to confirm presidential nominations to certain federal positions.

This vote is related to a resolution. However, that doesn’t necessarily tell you what it is about. Congress makes many decisions in the process of passing legislation, such as on the procedures for debating the resolution, whether to change the resolution before voting on passage, and even whether to vote on passage at all.

This was a vote on an amendment to the resolution. You can find the text of the amendment by looking for where it appears in the text of the Congressional Record. If you’re wondering why Congress doesn’t make it easier to find the text of each amendment, so are we.

You can learn more about the various motions used in Congress at EveryCRSReport.com. If you aren’t sure what the Senate was voting on, try seeing if it’s on this list.

2. What is the next step after this vote?Show Me Tips

Take a look at where this resolution is in the legislative process. What might come next? Keep in mind what this specific vote was on, and the context of the resolution. Will there be amendments? Will the other chamber of Congress vote on it, or let it die?

For this question it may help to briefly examine the resolution itself.

What is your analysis of this vote?

1. What trends do you see in this vote?Show Me Tips

Members of Congress side together for many reasons beside being in the same political party, especially so for less prominent legislation or legislation specific to a certain region. What might have determined how the roll call came out in this case? Does it look like Members of Congress voted based on party, geography, or some other reason?

2. How did your senators vote?Show Me Tips

There are two votes here that should be more important to you than all the others. These are the votes cast by your senators, which are meant to represent you and your community. Do you agree with how your senators voted? Why do you think they voted the way they did?

If you don’t already know who your Members of Congress are you can find them by entering your address here.

3. How much of the United States population is represented by the yeas?Show Me Tips

GovTrack displays the percentage of the United States population represented by the yeas on some Senate votes just under the vote totals. We do this to highlight how the people of the United States are represented in the Senate. Since each state has two senators, but state populations vary significantly, the individuals living in each state have different Senate representation. For example, California’s population of near 40 million is given the same number of senators as Wyoming’s population of about 600,000.

Do the senators who voted yea represent a majority of the people of the United States? Does it matter?