This vote was on a specific proposal, known as an amendment, which would have modified a larger set of changes already being considered for the bill H.R. 1. Senators use amendments like this to add, remove, or rewrite specific parts of a bill while it is still being debated on the Senate floor. In the Senate, voting on an amendment is a standard procedural step to decide what the final version of a law will look like. This specific vote required a simple majority to pass, meaning it needed more 'yes' votes than 'no' votes. Because the 'no' votes outnumbered the 'yes' votes, the proposed change was rejected and will not be part of the bill. The outcome was decided by a very narrow margin of 49 to 51. Neither party voted as a single block; instead, both Democrats and Republicans were divided amongst themselves. Because the amendment failed, the Senate will continue its work on the underlying bill without including these specific changes.