House Republicans failed in an attempt Wednesday to prevent outspoken Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., from reading aloud the number of people he claims have died for lack of health insurance in every GOP member's district. 

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., tried to stop the Florida Democrat in the middle of his reading on the House floor Wednesday night. Grayson has agitated Republicans in recent weeks for accusing them of wanting sick Americans to "die quickly" and for making other incendiary comments. 

Grayson was compelled to apologize for some remarks, most recently for calling an adviser to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke a "whore." But Republicans could not force an apology out of him Wednesday.

Gingrey called for a review of Grayson's words, which could have forced the lawmaker to either apologize or stop speaking. But after the House went into recess for an hour, Grayson's words were ruled to be in order. 

And then he continued to read out the number of people he says have died in every Republican's district -- which he calculated based on the statistics of uninsured residents released by the Urban Institute. 

"We now return to our regularly scheduled program," Grayson said as he resumed. "The effort to keep me from doing what I'm doing here has failed." 

The effort to reprimand Grayson comes after Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, S.C., was formally admonished by his colleagues for shouting "you lie" at President Obama during his health care address in September. 

Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.