ENDA Passes Senate Cloture Vote!

Chris Geidner has the details at Buzzfeed:

The Senate overcame any threat of a filibuster to a bill banning discrimination against LGBT people on Monday, setting up a final vote on the bill in the coming days. Seven Republicans broke ranks with their party in voting to block any filibusters against the bill, joined by all 55 Democrats in the Senate for a 61-30 vote. Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, returning from a funeral, did not vote. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has been pending in Congress over the past 20 years, could, in its current form, ban sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination in most workplaces. An earlier version of the legislation that only included sexual orientation protections was voted on in 1996, but it failed 49-50. There has been no Senate vote on the legislation since then.

More from the Atlantic:

The measure gained some rather visible support from moderate Republicans in Congress, grabbing a procedural "yes" vote from the previously undeclared Sen. Kelly Ayotte. Republican Senator Rob Portman cast the 60th vote on Monday (the final tally was 61 - 30, in favor of moving to debate). From some reports, it looks like at least Ayotte and Portman were swayed to vote for the measure with a promise of "tweaks" to religious exemptions in the bill. Republican Senators Kirk, Toomey, Hatch, Collins, Heller, and Kirk also voted for the bill. Senator Mark Kirk even took to the Senate floor to deliver his first speech since suffering a stroke last year. As his vote indicated, his speech was in favor of ENDA.