Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, also warned that he and his colleagues would employ a host of parliamentary maneuvers to seek to derail the reconciliation fixes to the House bill.

While reconciliation cannot be filibustered, there are no limits to the number of amendments that the GOP Senators can offer to the measure.

While he acknowledged that Republican efforts would face an uphill battle, he suggested that Senate Democrats might not be able to pass the reconciliation measure and that they might not be too upset by that failure.

He also noted that all 41 Republicans have vowed to use a procedure that would strip provisions from the bill that are not directly related to the federal budget, including language about restricting federal funding for abortion. That could derail the delicate negotiations with pro-life Democrats whose support will be needed to pass the underlying Senate bill in the House.