Routine vote almost forces House to relive Pelosi's marathon speech

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Pelosi urges no budget deal without protection for Dreamers

House minority leader holds floor in marathon protest of Senate's bipartisan budget agreement that did not include immigration reform; reaction and analysis from Roll Call's Joseph Williams.

Members of Congress on Thursday were almost compelled to relive House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s marathon floor speech from the night before, over a procedural glitch.

This played out when the House was taking an otherwise routine vote to approve the “Journal,” or the record of the prior day’s proceedings.

But on Thursday, a number of Republicans voted against approving the record – because they didn’t want to approve the eight-hour, record-breaking speech by Pelosi in which she railed against budget talks that didn’t include a firm commitment to address ‘dreamers,’ young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

The GOP objections to the Journal, though, could have caused a problem – the House can’t move on to other business without approving that log.

Failure to approve the Journal would have triggered a vote to, in turn, require the entire document – including Pelosi’s eight-hour presentation in full – to be read aloud in the chamber.

Doing so could have, in turn, sidelined vital votes on a budget plan to avert a looming government shutdown.

But cooler heads prevailed on the House floor. The House voted to approve the Journal 208-194, with two members voting present. A total of 96 Republicans and 98 Democrats voted nay.