The Senate has passed H.R. 2847, now the vehicle for what's become known as the Senate jobs bill, by a vote of 70-28.
The path to passage was cleared by Monday's successful cloture vote in which newly-elected Sen. Scott Brown (D-MA) [UPDATE: Fox News Moment! Brown is, of course, a Republican. No, seriously!] was one among five Republicans joining Democrats to break the logjam.
Technically, what just happened was that a motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 2847, with an amendment (#3310) was agreed to.
Get that? The House passed H.R. 2847, which was originally a Commerce/Justice/Science appropriations bill, back in June of last year. It was filibustered (of course) for quite some time in the Senate and finally amended and sent back to the House in November. By mid-December, the House had amended the Senate's amendment and sent it back yet again. And now, with no further need for it as an appropriations bill (since the departments and operations in question have since been funded by another bill), it was converted into the Senate jobs bill by the adoption of a substitute amendment (#3310) and passed. And now it returns to the House for a third time, this time as a jobs bill.
Fun!
Of note: Ben Nelson (D-NE) joined 29 Republicans in opposing passage of the bill, even as 13 Republicans crossed over to support it. Can't wait to have the DNC spend some more small dollar donor money on ads for that guy.