Senate votes set for Saturday morning

As expected, the Senate will take a series of four votes on Saturday morning to fund the government for fiscal year 2012 and to extend President Obama's signature tax cut legislation.

The upper chamber will ring in at 9 a.m. for the rare Saturday session and immediately proceed to vote on approval of the two-month extension of the pay roll tax cut compromise brokered between leaders late Friday evening. That compromise will technically see a vote as a substitute amendment to the earlier House-passed full-year extension of the cuts. If the amendment succeeds, however, the bill, H.R. 3630, will be considered passed as amended.

Reid released a statement Friday night skewering Republicans for blocking a full-year extension of the tax cuts but suggesting his caucus is eager to renew the fight following the holiday break.

“Democrats have worked tirelessly to prevent a thousand-dollar tax increase on middle-class families, but my Republican colleagues wouldn’t agree to long-term tax relief unless Democrats agreed to cut Medicare benefits for seniors," said Reid. "For the next two months, Democrats will work to extend the middle-class tax cut through the end of the year. Republicans can either join us, or explain why they want middle-class families’ taxes to go up.”

The Senate will then move on to a short debate and a vote over the $915 billion spending omnibus, H.R. 2055. That bill would fund Defense, Energy and Water, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Interior, Labor/Health and Human Services, Legislative Branch, Military Construction/VA, and State/Foreign Operations.

The Senate will also vote on House-passed bills related to the appropriations package. One of them, H.R. 3672, provides for $8.1 billion in disaster relief funding, $6.4 billion of which would go to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The other,  H.Con.Res. 94, would amend the emergency relief bill by making an across-the-board 1.83 percent cut to most discretionary spending accounts in 2012.

All votes are subject to a 60-vote threshold.

The Senate also passed a short-term spending bill by unanimous consent on Friday night to fund the government past midnight, when funding was set to run dry. 

The Senate adjourned at 9 p.m.