As promised, Reid sets up cloture vote on highway bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) scheduled a vote for noon Tuesday on a cloture motion to shut off debate on the pending highway bill.

Reid and other Senate leaders have been unable to move forward on the bill for almost a month as Republicans and some Democrats have failed to reach an agreement under which the dozens of pending non-germane amendments would see votes. 

For the bill to reach the 60-vote threshold required for it to proceed to a vote on passage, it must garner the entire Democratic caucus and at least seven Republican votes.

Before adjourning the Senate for the week just before noon Friday, Reid also set up votes on two of President Obama’s judicial nominees — Mary Elizabeth Phillips to be U.S. district judge for the Western District of Missouri and Thomas Owen Rice to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Washington. Those votes will begin at 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.