When at first you don’t succeed…
After failing yesterday to get the 60 votes they needed to bring debate on a historic financial reform bill to a close, Senate Democrats succeeded in this afternoon’s cloture vote.
The final vote today was 60-40 (yesterday it was 57-42). Next up is a final vote on passage, which is expected to take place within days.
After today’s vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said there are “a couple of amendments that are germane post-cloture, but they’re the ones that we have to figure out a way to get resolved.”
“We’re going to try to work through this,” Reid said, adding that there may be more votes this afternoon.
“Best of all worlds, we’d finish this thing and move onto other issues,” Reid said. “We’re gonna try to do that.”
Two Democrats — Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Russ Feingold (D-WI) — still voted no today, but this time around, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) joined Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) in supporting cloture.
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), who was absent for yesterday’s vote, also voted in favor of cloture. Reid also changed his vote from “no” to “yes” — though yesterday’s “no” vote was merely a procedural necessity that allowed him to bring up the motion again.
