Senate Dems file cloture on House GOP payroll tax cut bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) filed cloture on the motion to proceed on the House-passed payroll tax cut extension bill, H.R. 3630 on Thursday evening.

If an agreement is not reached, the first procedural vote on that bill, the so-called "Act to Provide Incentives to Create Jobs," will take place on Saturday morning.

Reid has been demanding a vote on that legislation since minutes after it passed the House on Tuesday night claiming that it was  "dead on arrival" in the upper chamber. His Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), however, has resisted so far insisting that the Senate first take up the spending omnibus bill for fiscal year 2012.

Reid opposes the payrolll tax cut bill because along with extending President Obama's signature tax cut, it would order the administration the allow for the immediate construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and diminish unemployment benefits for some Americans.

The Senate will reconvene at 10 a.m for a rare Friday session in hopes of averting a government shutdown which would occur at midnight if a new spending measure is not passed.