After months of delays and almost seven hours of continuous voting, the Senate adopted an amended budget early Saturday morning, sending the blueprint back to the House, where lawmakers might just make more changes and send it right back.
The Senate voted 51-48, with 51 Republicans in favor of the budget and 46 Democrats opposed. (Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Susan Collins joined Democrats in opposition to the budget. Sen. Patty Murray was absent.)
The whole process was a battle. The vote-a-rama started just after 8:00 p.m. on Friday and didn’t wrap until just before 3:00 a.m. But beyond some votes on a Friday night into early Saturday morning — with Democrats trying to make the whole process as physically and politically painful as possible — the entire reconciliation ordeal has been, to this point, a slog.