Photo by giantminispacegoat

Bless DC Agenda’s Lou Chibbaro, Jr., who managed to stay up late enough to watch the Senate vote to block an amendment that would have forced a ballot measure on D.C.’s same-sex marriage law. The amendment, offered by Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), was killed after the Senate voted 59-36 to deny a motion to waive the parliamentarian ruling that it was out of order. The vote came sometime after 1 a.m. this morning.

Not every parliamentary ruling on the health care reconciliation bill ended up going Democrats’ way, however, and the bill will in fact head back to the House as soon as the Senate is done with it. As The Hill reports:

Senate Parliamentarian Alan Frumin sustained two GOP objections to two minor sections of a Pell Grant provision in the student loan part of the bill intended to change the original healthcare reform bill passed by both chambers.

The Senate held 10 hours of continuous, marathon voting starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, with Republicans trying throughout to lodge a successful objection to the bill to force its return to the lower chamber. The bill’s passage by the House is a safe bet, prompting Senate GOP Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) to call Frumin’s ruling “a consolation prize.”

The Senate is expected to take a final vote at 2 p.m., so theoretically the House could vote again as early as this evening or possibly Friday.