Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is introducing an amendment to the must-pass highway bill to fully repeal Obamacare.
McConnell's spokesman said a vote is likely to take place on Sunday, reported The Associated Press. The initial vote to cap debate on the appeal amendment will need 60 votes. To pass, six Democrats would have to join Republicans in endorsing repeal.
The House has voted about 50 times to repeal President Obama's health care law, but this will be the first time the Senate has done so, as the chamber was under Democratic control until this year, according to the AP.
The Supreme Court upheld a key component of the law - federal subsidies - last month.
While McConnell hopes to appease Republicans with the Obamacare-repeal amendment, he said Friday he would also vote to reauthorize the federal Export-Import Bank, a move that is staunchly opposed by many conservatives, including 2016 presidential candidates Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas.
McConnell said he personally opposes the revival of the bank, but Democrats insisted the bank reauthorization be included in the six-year highway deal he negotiated with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., according to The Hill.
"Ex-Im shouldn't be the only vote we take on this bill, and under the compromise I just filed, it won't be. That's a much fairer way forward," McConnell said, adding that the GOP will "continue to fight for" a repeal of the health care law.
Reviving the bank is also important to one of the Democrats' top targets in 2016, Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who McConnell wants to help win re-election.
Cruz issued a scathing rebuke of McConnell's leadership Friday, saying the Senate is hardly any different under Republican control than it was under Democratic control and accusing McConnell of cutting a backroom deal with Democrats on the Ex-Im Bank.
"The majority leader looked at me and said there is no deal there is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal. Like St. Peter, he said it three times," Cruz said, according to The Washington Times.
The Senate is rushing to pass the highway legislation before the July 31 deadline to prevent states from losing highway and transit aid.
The chamber began voting on the measure at 9 a.m. Friday morning.
