If this is correct, it's a very good reason to suspect there is some nasty stuff hidden in the bill. Remember the original Brady Bill was advanced, "without objection".. at Oh Dark Thirty with less than a handful of Senators present.
It's correct. There was no recorded vote. Here's a summary of major legislative actions with regard to HR 2640 as it went from the House to the Senate:
ALL ACTIONS:
6/11/2007:
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
6/13/2007 10:31am:
Mr. Conyers moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill.
6/13/2007 10:32am:
Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H6339-6347)
6/13/2007 11:15am:
On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H6339-6342)
6/13/2007 11:15am:
Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
6/14/2007:
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Going into some detail of what happened, the only dissenting remarks that I saw were those of Representative Ron Paul:
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 2640, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Improvements Amendments Act, and I urge caution.In my opinion, H.R. 2640 is a flagrantly unconstitutional expansion of restriction on the exercise of the right to bear arms protected under the second amendment.
H.R. 2640 also seriously undermines the privacy rights of all Americans, gun owners and non-gun owners alike, by creating and expanding massive Federal Government databases, including medical and other private records of every American.
H.R. 2640 illustrates how placing restrictions on the exercise of one right, in this case, the right to bear arms, inevitably leads to expanded restriction on other rights as well. In an effort to make the Brady background check on gun purchases more efficient, H.R. 2640 pressures States and mandates Federal agencies to dump massive amounts of information about the private lives of all Americans into a central Federal Government database.
Among the information that must be submitted to the database are medical, psychological, and drug treatment records that have traditionally been considered protected from disclosure under the physician/patient relationship, as well as records related to misdemeanor domestic violence. While supporters of H.R. 2640 say that there are restrictions on the use of this personal information, such restrictions did not stop the well-publicized IRS and FBI files privacy abuses by both Democratic and Republican administrations. Neither have such restrictions prevented children from being barred from flights because their names appeared on the massive terrorist watch list. We should not trick ourselves into believing that we can pick and choose which part of the Bill of Rights we support.
I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing this bill.
And here's the denouement:
[Time: 11:15] The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2640.The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.