Today's the day a compromise has to form.
Without a cloture filing in the Senate tonight, Congress has almost no chance of raising the debt ceiling by August 2nd. 43 GOP Senators pledged to oppose the Reid bill — meaning the vote to end debate tonight will likely fail.
Reid will have one more chance to reach a deal tonight, before it becomes almost impossible for Congress to raise the debt limit by August 2nd.
Meanwhile the House of Representatives voted down Senate Majority Leader Reid's 'compromise' plan to raise the borrowing limit. The dummy vote was pushed by House Republicans to show they still support Speaker of the House John Boehner's rival plan.
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The Huffington Post reports:
"Nancy clearly wants it," said the lawmaker, who requested anonymity. "Publicly? No. Privately? She thinks the president should do it. Period."
Lots of behind the scenes maneuvering in the Senate tonight as Reid tries to build support for his plan, while McConnell looks to keep his caucus in line and negotiate a better deal with President Obama.
It's going to be a long night.
McConnell says he cut short phone call with Biden to go on floor for the unusual live quorum call, which brought all Senators to the floor.
Reid calls GOP action a "filibuster" says GOP not allowing straight up or down vote
Reid is asking unanimous consent for an up-down vote. McConnell objects.
McConnell: "We need to be in a position where we, in the leadership, can say we've reached a framework of an agreement."
McConnell again saying that working with Obama is the only solution.
Reid: Talk of bargain "is not true."
Reid: "The engagement there is not in any meaningful way."
Reid: Merely saying you have an agreement in front of TV cameras doesn't make it so."
Reid: While the Republican leader is holding meaningless press conferences, his members are coming to me and trying to move the process"
Reid: "The process has not been moved forward during this day"
Reid to reporters after his meeting with Obama: "The question is are we closer to an agreement, the answer is 'no.'"
A White House official said the meeting with the President and Vice President with Leader Reid and Leader Pelosi ended at 5:05PM. No further information was available.
The buzz in DC that a deal is afoot, after Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said President Barack Obama is "fully engaged" in negotiations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are meeting with Obama now, ostensibly to "brief" the President.
Appearing to acknowledge his bill will not be the final deal, Boehner said "We are going to be able to come to some agreement with the White House and end this impasse."
An agreement needs to be reached by midnight in order to guarantee it can pass Congress by August 2nd.
Communications Director Dan Pfieffer tweets: RE GOP presser: 1) Both McConnell and Reid have said there was no agreement 2)House GOP couldnt even pass the bill they think was agreed to
He adds: Just to pass their bill by a single vote, the House GOP had to include a measure that would require us to amend the Constitution or default
Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are speaking about the debt ceiling negotiations now.
Boehner: There's bipartisan opposition to Sen. Reid's proposal
Boehner: It's time for Obama, Democrats to tell us what they're for
McConnell says he has spoken to Obama, Biden in the last hour, he added that Obama is "fully engaged" in the negotiations now.
McConnell says he is confident there will be an agreement "in the very near future" to end this crisis
Both he and Boehner said they are negotiating with the White House now, and did not mention Senate Democrats
McConnell: "We now have the level of seriousness needed at the table" to reach a deal
McConnell: "We're going to get it resolved. Our country is not going to default"
Boehner: "Sen. Reid, Sen. McConnell and I had a solid agreement last Sunday. It was Obama who derailed that agreement."
Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) says at least 20 senators, of both parties, have a hand in three compromise options. All have triggers with "the potential for revenues"
John McCain tweets: House rejects Reid proposal. We're in a standoff. It's time to get something done.
A White House official said President will meet with Leader Reid and Leader Pelosi at the White House at 3:30 pm to receive an update on the situation in the House and Senate. Meeting is closed press.
"The Senate plan can't pass the Senate."
Reid tells GOP Senators they have until midnight tonight to relay any changes and to get them into his compromise plan. Reid must file cloture by then to set up a final vote on Tuesday.
Now the focus is on the Senate, and the big cloture vote tonight.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will meet with President Obama at 3:30.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says the House will meet in pro forma session tomorrow. No votes expected until Monday at noon.
Reid: We can still do this. We can still change this.
Reid: "We are at a crucial time in the history of the country. We've said it before, but it's true."
At press conference, Reid says that at least one Republican Senator who signed the letter in opposition to his bill has already opened channel with Senate Democrats.
Reid said he'll have a balanced budget amendment vote (bill written by Mark Udall)
Under suspension of the rules, a two-thirds was required. There were no GOP votes for the bill.
Final tally: 173-246; 11 Democratic no votes
15 minute vote. Needs a two-thirds margin to pass.
Pelosi says Boehner "chose to go to the dark side" during his negotiations on the debt limit, and once again encourages a yes vote on the Reid bill.
This will be one to pay attention to.
UPDATE: pushed back to 3:45
Urges Democrats and Republicans to support Reid legislation.
Pelosi asks why GOP bringing the Reid bill up under "suspension of the rules" which requires a two-thirds vote.
Pelosi calls the Boehner bill "perfectly absurd."
Pelosi refuses to yield to GOP Rep. Dreier who tries to get in a word edge-wise.
She then says "it's very important that we all take a deep breath"
"It's time for us to end this theater of the absurd. It's time for us to get real."
The Office of Management and Budget says President Obama supports the version of the Reid bill introduced in the House. Republicans are set to vote the bill down within the hour.
Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-MS): "We hear [Democrats] talk a lot about compromise. The American people want solutions."
Citing this op-ed repeatedly: "Republicans are not looking like adults to whom voters can entrust the government."
If Republican opposition holds, Reid may be forced to amend his plan in order to gain the 60 votes required to end debate on the measure.
POLITICO reports they are meeting today to decide whether to back it. Earlier this week they called for a "clean" increase in the debt limit with no spending cuts.
Calls Rep. David Dreier's position on the Reid plan "pernicious nonsense."
The Minnesota representative and GOP presidential candidate attacks Obama for demanding "blank checks" and not offering a plan to bring down the deficit. She voted no on the Boehner debt limit plan and says she is a no vote on any plan to raise the debt limit.
"You have not moved a single centimeter toward compromise on a debt bill."
He says the Reid bill incorporates the views of Speaker Boehner and Leader Eric Cantor and makes it a long term debt limit increase.
Brown, Snowe, Collins, Murkowski.
Reid needs three more Republicans to end debate on the measure tonight.
Vote should be within the hour, and it is likely to fail.
He says 43 Republicans are opposed to the Reid plan in its updated form. That's enough to block tonight's cloture vote.
On the Senate floor: "As recently as yesterday morning I asked my friend, the Senate Minority Leader, to help make this Senate compromise more palatable to Republicans. Yet we have heard nothing from the Republican leader."
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a moderate Republican Reid hopes to bring over to support his proposal has released a statement calling for bipartisanship to end the negotiating impasse.
“Time is of the essence, and the moment has long since arrived for shelving politics and instead striking the right policy. Hopefully now all sides will work together in an expeditious manner to work out the issues and bring us closer to agreement. I do find it rather ironic that for this entire year, this Senate, described as ‘least productive’ at a time that coincides with one of the most challenging economic periods of our nation’s history, has done nothing substantial, rejecting numerous opportunities to pursue policies important to our job creation, boosting our economy, and doing what is right for the fiscal stability of our nation.”
From Speaker of the House John Boehner's blog:
"Today the House of Representatives will bring up – and defeat – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s debt limit legislation. This vote will demonstrate that the Reid bill cannot pass the House. This will also expose any Senate vote on the Reid bill as a pointless political exercise that squanders precious time as the specter of a job-crushing default looms."
The House and Senate will convene at 1pm today. The House will likely go out of session after a vote on the Reid plan to raise the debt limit, while the Senate will stick around until 1 am Sunday to vote to end debate on the plan.
When we started our countdown clock at the beginning of the month, we set the end date as 12:01 AM August 2nd. We've now changed that to August 3rd on the advice of the Treasury Department, which has said the deadline for a deal is 11:59 PM August 2nd.
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