Harry Reid has managed to streamline the votes today on the temporary funding bill (continuing resolution) so that the Senate can finish its work this afternoon. So instead of votes dragging into Saturday or Sunday, the Senate will wrap up voting today and kick the bill back to the House.
Votes are expected to begin at 12:30 p.m. ET. There will be a series of four votes:
1. A cloture vote to end debate on the bill (60 votes required to pass).
2. A procedural vote that will help streamline the remainder of the process (60 votes required to pass).
3. A vote to remove or replace the defund Obamacare language in the bill (51 votes required to pass).
4. A final vote on the amended bill (51 votes required for passage).
Expectations are the bill will make it through those four hurdles, then it’s largely up to Speaker Boehner what happens next. Lots of theories and analysis of what he could, should, and would do. No lack of predictions. But no one — except maybe Boehner himself … maybe — knows for sure whether the House can pass something acceptable to the Senate and the White House that will avert a government shutdown come Tuesday.
