Reid: Small-business amendment impasse nearly solved

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said there has been a major breakthrough on controversial amendments that are holding up the small-business bill. Up to 10 votes on amendments could be scheduled for Thursday afternoon, Reid said on Wednesday.

“I think we have had a breakthrough so that we can at least, hopefully, work toward a conclusion of this extremely difficult matter,” Reid said, referring to a logjam of amendments tacked onto the small-business bill.

Three of those amendments in particular have provoked strife in the upper chamber. One would strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its power to regulate carbon emissions, another would repeal some tax reporting requirements for businesses and another would eliminate some government subsidies to ethanol farmers. Reid said a deal had nearly been reached on all of these amendments.

Reid said that due to briefings on the U.S.’s military mission in Libya scheduled for Wednesday afternoon as well as the funeral for Geraldine Ferraro in New York on Thursday morning, the votes would not occur before Thursday afternoon. 

Reid added the votes could spill into Friday morning.