Hurricane Relief Bill Clears Hurdle in the Senate

Voting 91 to 1, Democrats and Republicans came together on a crucially important motion to end debate on the bill and schedule a vote next week.

The move thrilled supporters, who said it meant that the Senate was all but certain to pass the measure.

The motion came after days of intense negotiations in which the bill’s Democratic supporters had to overcome serious doubts, mostly from Republicans, over several issues, including the measure’s cost.

“We are halfway home,” said a jubilant Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. “There were times in the past week when it seemed that this bill would fall to a filibuster. It seemed that there was too much opposition to the bill.”

The bill still faces great uncertainty in the Republican-controlled House, where some leading conservative lawmakers may seek to block it.

In a nod to the uphill battle in the House, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said that once the Senate passes the aid package next week, “House Republicans have a moral obligation to come back to Washington and get this important work done.”

The House adjourned on Thursday for the Christmas holidays.

The emergency spending measure was written by Senate Democrats, who based it on a similar $60.4 billion request that President Obama sent to Congress nearly two weeks ago to provide emergency aid to hurricane-battered states.

While the bill falls short of the $82 billion requested by the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, its supporters have argued that its passage is vitally important as states seek to clean up storm damage and undertake long-term projects to protect against the effects of future storms.

But serious objections remain, primarily from House Republicans, who maintain that the spending package was thrown together hastily and contains projects that hardly qualify as emergency items, like repairing roofs of national museums in Washington.

And some Republicans have made clear that they would prefer to pass a smaller emergency spending bill now — and perhaps provide more money in the coming months as states and localities get a clearer picture of what their actual needs are.

Democrats and some Republicans from the region are strenuously opposed to that approach, pushing Congress to approve as much federal aid as possible in the coming weeks, primarily out of concern that assistance will become less of a priority later on.

The timing of the aid package is also a problem, coming as Mr. Obama and Congressional leaders in both parties were struggling to negotiate an agreement to avert tax increases and spending cuts on Jan. 1.

Supporters of the spending request said that it was unrelated to those discussions, noting the longstanding practice of the government to quickly respond to emergencies without simultaneously addressing the impact on the federal budget.

But some Republicans disagree, arguing privately that spending cuts should be found elsewhere in the federal budget to pay for the storm package.