Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor Thursday evening that negotiators would work through the night to craft a stimulus compromise. "I would hope that within the next twelve hours we can have a piece of legislation," he said just before 6:15 p.m. EST. "We are going to work until we get it done."
A vote on the final stimulus package had been aimed for Thursday night, but became an unlikely prospect when Sen. Susan Collins said she wouldn't support the current bill this evening.
Collins, one of two crucial swing-voting Republicans from Maine, said that she hoped for a vote Friday. "I don't know that we can get it done tonight, but I'm hopeful that we can get it done tomorrow," she told reporters. "I would not vote for the House-passed bill in its current form but I'm hopeful that's not going to be the decision -- that we can alter the bill sufficiently so I can vote for it. My goal is to be able to support it."
Asked to clarify if she would vote for the bill if it came up tonight, Collins said, "I would not."
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who has been leading bipartisan negotiations to cut down the size of the stimulus, said he would have "difficulty" voting for the bill tonight -- not ruling it out entirely, he said, because he doesn't like to make threats.
"We're trying to deliver something that they can be for," said Nelson of his Republican negotiating partners.
Reid said earlier Thursday that "we hope to have the vote today. I talked to Senator McConnell today. We're all working toward that goal. We'll have to wait and see. Now, do we have the votes? We believe we do. We believe that we can find two Republicans of good will who are going to do the right thing for the country."
Collins said that a bipartisan group of more than ten lawmakers, who met earlier today, has yet to reach any agreement. "We're continuing to talk. We've been close and then it comes back and then it gets close again," said Collins.
"It's not going so well," said Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), who met with Collins, Nelson and the other centrists today. "Essentially right now I don't think we'll be able to come to a deal."
An aide to a progressive Democratic senator described the Nelson-led deal as "falling apart."