Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced late Saturday the first glint of hope in the debt-ceiling saga, delaying a scheduled 1:01 a.m. Sunday cloture vote to give congressional and administration negotiators more time to reach a compromise.
Reid moved the vote to 1 p.m. Sunday and did so with no Republican objections -- a sign the GOP shared Reid's new-found optimism about a potential breakthrough. Moving the vote without objection marked the first unified parliamentary move in a day fraught with just that.
"I'm optimistic there will be no short-term arrangement whatsoever," Reid said on the floor of the Senate around 10 p.m. Saturday night. "I'm also confident that reasonable people from both parties should be able to reach an agreement . I believe we should give them time to do so."
Negotiators told National Journal that progress was made on the toughest remaining issue -- a so-called trigger to ensure that spending cuts of up to $2.4 trillion would, in fact, be instituted by a special committee the debt-ceiling bills in Congress would establish.
Reid said it was necessary to delay the scheduled early-morning vote to give negotiators more time. Congressional sources said there were slender hopes that a deal could be struck before Asian stock markets open starting at 5 p.m. EDT.
Following the movement of the vote to later Sunday, Reid adjourned the Senate.
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