Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, filed cloture to bring his debt ceiling bill to the Senate floor for a vote. However, the Democratic leader failed to attain the needed 60 votes and his plan to raise the debt ceiling was blocked by the GOP 50 to 49.
It should be noted that only one Republican, Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts, voted with the Democratic majority for cloture. Two Democrats , though, voted with the minority—Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Independent Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats also voted against the Reid bill.
Senate Democratic leaders gathered in House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi’s office after the cloture vote to discuss what their next steps in the debt ceiling debate would be. Senator Reid told me as he entered Rep. Pelosi’s office that he remains confident a resolution debt ceiling crisis would happen by the August 2 due date.
