Progress on a new, stricter ethics legislation ground to a halt yesterday. Senate Republicans, who want to add a line-item veto provision, stopped the ethics package from moving forward yesterday by voting against the motion to invoke cloture:

The Democratic-led Senate failed to end a Republican procedural roadblock that has stalled a bipartisan bill to revamp the Senate's ethics and lobbying rules.

On a 51-46 vote, the Senate fell 14 short of the 65 votes needed to end more than a week of debate and move toward a vote on passage of the sweeping measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said he would try again on Thursday to muster the two-thirds majority vote needed to end debate on proposed rules changes.

This is the roll call vote on the motion to invoke cloture that held up the debate:

Grouped By Vote Position