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In God We Trust, With the House’s Help

WASHINGTON — Citing a crisis of national identity and mass confusion among Americans about their nation’s motto, the House on Tuesday voted on a resolution “reaffirming ‘In God We Trust’ as the official motto of the United States.”

The resolution, smaller than a law but bigger than a wish, is designed to clear up any confusion over the motto’s official status and to encourage schools and other public institutions to display it, said Representative J. Randy Forbes, Republican of Virginia and the measure’s sponsor.

“What’s happened over the last several years is that we have had a number of confusing situations in which some who don’t like the motto have tried to convince people not to put it up,” Mr. Forbes said in an interview.

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The nation's motto, "In God We Trust," at the Capitol Visitor Center.Credit...Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

“Some public officials have stated incorrectly that there are different national mottoes,” he added. “We heard the president make that mistake.” (Last year, President Obama cited “E pluribus unum” as the nation’s motto in a speech in Indonesia.)

“This is something I have paid a lot of attention to over the years,” Mr. Forbes said, pointing to discussions of the motto, which officially became that of the nation in 1956, throughout the last century in Congress. “If you look at the debates, they clarified that the motto had spiritual and psychological value.”

Mr. Forbes, along with the Congressional Prayer Caucus, beat back efforts to prevent “In God We Trust” from being engraved in the Capitol Visitor Center.

The resolution, which went through an expedited process requiring acquiescence of two-thirds of the House, passed 396 to 9, with all but one of the no votes coming from Democrats; two members voted “present.” The Senate had passed a similar measure in 2006 when Republicans controlled that chamber.

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The nation's motto on a presidential $1 coin.Credit...Jeff Haynes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, said earlier this year that he would try to prevent votes on measures that were not “substantive and meaningful.” The House did not vote, for example, on an independent resolution, passed in the Senate this year, to honor the troops who carried out the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. His office did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Five Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote a dissent against the motto resolution last March, and Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York spoke against it Tuesday in a brief debate on the House floor.

“Why are my Republican friends returning to an irrelevant agenda?” Mr. Nadler said. “The national motto is not in danger. No one here is suggesting we get rid of it. It appears on our money, it appears in this chamber above your head, it appears in the Capitol Visitors’ Center, all over the place.”

The motto’s words have been the subject of discussion before. President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter in 1907 explaining the logic behind leaving “In God We Trust” off a $10 gold coin.

“To put such a motto on coins,” Roosevelt wrote, “or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 19 of the New York edition with the headline: In God We Trust, With the House’s Help. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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