let me help you out
since you either can't do a simple search on wiki or did an extensive one and then decided to avoid adding all the various bits that show just how one-sided this bill was as far as political support. Almost zero votes in the House, and less than 1/4 in the Senate, including a filibuster that was almost successful. Yeah, there's a simple version, then there's the one adults understand.
"The bill was debated and negotiated for nearly six months in
Congress, and finally passed amid unusual circumstances. Several times
in the legislative process the bill had appeared to have failed, but
each time was saved when a couple of Congressmen and Senators switched
positions on the bill.
The bill was introduced in the
Dennis Hastert.
All that day and the next the bill was debated, and it was apparent
that the bill would be very divisive. In the early morning of June 27, a
floor vote was taken. After the initial electronic vote, the count
stood at 214 yeas, 218 nays.
Three Republican representatives then changed their votes. One opponent of the bill,
Jo Ann Emerson (MO-8) switched their vote to "aye" under pressure from the party leadership. The bill passed by one vote, 216-215.
On June 26, the Senate passed its version of the bill, 76-21. The
bills were unified in conference, and on November 21, the bill came back
to the House for approval.
The bill came to a vote at 3 a.m. on November 22. After 45 minutes, the bill was losing, 219-215, with
Tom DeLay
sought to convince some of dissenting Republicans to switch their
votes, as they had in June. Istook, who had always been a wavering vote,
consented quickly, producing a 218-216 tally. In a highly unusual move,
the House leadership held the vote open for hours as they sought two
more votes. Then-Representative
Nick Smith
(R-MI) claimed he was offered campaign funds for his son, who was
running to replace him, in return for a change in his vote from "nay" to
"yea." After controversy ensued, Smith clarified no explicit offer of
campaign funds was made, but that he was offered "substantial and
aggressive campaign support" which he had assumed included financial
support.
[6]
About 5:50 a.m., convinced Otter and
[7]
The Democrats cried foul, and
Bill Thomas,
the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means committee, challenged the
result in a gesture to satisfy the concerns of the minority. He
subsequently voted to table his own challenge; the tally to table was
210 ayes, 193 noes.[
citation needed]
The Senate's consideration of the conference report was somewhat less heated, as
Tom Daschle,
and voted on. As 60 votes were necessary to override it, the challenge
was actually considered to have a credible chance of passing.
For several minutes, the vote total was stuck at 58-39, until Senators
[10]"
no, not "dead wrong"
