Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday afternoon announced that the Senate would vote Friday on the House-passed Cut, Cap and Balance legislation that Republicans have tried to tie to a debt ceiling increase.
The Nevada Democrat will attempt to use a procedural motion, known as tabling, to deep-six the bill’s chances of coming before the chamber. The motion to table requires 51 votes to pass, and the 53-member Democratic caucus could kill the CCB bill if it sticks together. Cut, Cap and Balance is overwhelmingly supported by Republicans, who control the House, but it has minimal support among Democrats. President Barack Obama has vowed to veto the bill even it were able to clear the Democratic Senate. That disagreement has left the legislation as an unlikely vehicle to solve the partisan impasse on the debt ceiling issue.
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