WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer may take procedural steps beginning Thursday to set up a final vote next week on stopgap spending legislation running through Dec. 16.
One tentative plan under consideration, according to a source familiar with the discussions, calls for the New York Democrat to file cloture Thursday on a motion to proceed to a House-passed legislative vehicle that would be amended next week with the continuing resolution’s contents. That will likely include the energy infrastructure permitting legislation that Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., unveiled Wednesday.
When cloture “ripens” for a vote — likely Tuesday, when senators reconvene and Democratic leaders aim to unveil the substitute amendment, assuming weekend negotiations produce agreement — it would require 60 votes to get on the motion to proceed.
