Senators in both parties are engaged in an urgent round of talks to see if they can reach an agreement that would allow the Senate to open up debate on a $95.3 billion foreign aid package — a bill that would not include the bipartisan border deal that Republicans killed today.
GOP senators are demanding an agreement that would allow the Senate to vote on their amendments to the package. To reach a time agreement, all 100 senators have to sign off on it. So this process would take time to play out, sometimes many hours.
Right now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has left open the vote on the floor to begin the process of taking up the bill. This vote has been open for nearly two hours.
What happens next: Once this vote is closed, then the Senate must vote to overcome a filibuster and formally open up debate. That is the first key vote — and it would require 60 votes to get onto the bill.
So far, there are not enough Republicans who say they’ll vote to advance the bill until an agreement over their amendments is reached.
Source: www.cnn.com