The Hill News

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday expressed optimism that the chamber will approve the tax-cut deal struck between President Obama and congressional Republicans, as well as a Defense Department policy that repeals the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

 

Speaking at a mid-afternoon press conference just hours before a key procedural vote on the DADT repeal, Reid said the tax-cut deal should receive a successful vote in the next “day or two,” and that the defense measure is likewise poised for passage.

 

He also noted the House has already passed its version of the tax-cut extensions, as the lower chamber voted last week to extend only those cuts designed for the middle class. The Senate twice tried and failed to follow suit Saturday.

 

“This is not as hard as most things, because we already have from the House the message that we voted on last Saturday, so we only need one cloture [vote] on this matter,” Reid said. “So we can do fairly quickly, I hope in the next day or two.”

 

For the defense authorization measure, Reid said he is considering setting a limit of 15 amendments â€" 10 for Republicans and five for the Democrats, with an hour of debate for each. He said he chose the number because that is the average number of amendments attached to Senate bills in recent years.

 

Assuming all Democrats support the DADT repeal, Democrats will need to persuade two GOP senators to cross the aisle. Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) has already announced his support, as has Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

But Democrats Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Jim Webb (Va.) have not yet spelled out their position on repeal. Manchin recently expressed some concern with repeal, while Webb was the only Democrat earlier this year to vote against the repeal provision in the Senate Armed Services Committee. Webb last week lauded the Pentagon's study of repeal implication, but expressed some concern over how a repeal would be implemented.

Webb told CNN's John King that he would vote to proceed with the debate of the defense authorization bill but did not commit on his support for the repeal provision.

 

Reid said he is also talking with chief GOP negotiator Sen. Susan Collins (Maine). Collins supports the repeal, but opposed it earlier this year after complaining that Reid wasn’t allowing enough Republican amendments.

 

“We’ve been talking,” Reid said. “With Christmas staring us right down our throats, I don’t know why that wouldn’t be reasonable.”