Earlier this evening, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — the moderate Republican whose vote to proceed to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was supposed to create a domino effect that would have brought along the support of Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AR) and Scott Brown (D-MA) and given Democrats the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster — told reporters that she would not vote for cloture until Congress reached an agreement for extending the Bush tax cuts. Consequently, Reid has postponed the vote to later in the week.

And while the tax negotiations remain at a standstill, earlier today, advocates of DADT repeal seemed hopeful that a compromise could still be brokered with Collins. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) — a sponsor of repeal — and Reid, both disputed morning reports that Collins was unrealistically expecting an open amendment process and stressed that she was acting in good faith and seemed interested in reaching a “fair” time agreement with Democrats. “There was some stuff in the paper today that mean it — that said she couldn’t make up her mind what she wanted to do. That’s really not true,” Reid explained to reporters this afternoon. “She had made up her mind what she wanted to do. I just thought it was too much time,” he said.

Indeed, the Washington Posts’ Jonathan Capehart published a column just minutes before Collins pulled out of the deal, suggesting that Reid and Collins were just a couple of hours apart. While she had agreed to Reid’s “offer of 15 amendments — 10 for Republicans and 5 for Democrats,” she wanted “two hours of debate (one hour for Democrats and one hour for Republicans) for each amendment.” Publicly, Reid had only offered one hour of debate for each amendment, with additional time for some amendments.

It’s unclear what happened between now and then, but Reid’s team is disputing Capehart’s characterization, saying “If a little more time on each amendment was all she’s asking, Senator Reid would have shaken her hand and called it a deal by now.” And Collins told reporters that she needed more debate time and the ability for Republicans “pick our own amendments as opposed to the Majority Leader.” She also reverted back to the GOP argument that the tax extensions would have to come first. “Everyone on the Republican side wants to see the tax package completed first,” she said. “So I have urged the majority leader to postpone the vote…so that we could get the tax bill considered first — which I believe could be on the floor tomorrow — and completed by Saturday, and then move immediately to the DOD bill, but under a fair agreement.”

Whether or not Reid and Collins can agree on what constitutes “fair” and move to the defense bill will also now depend on the progress of the tax compromise, which seems to have stalled. But what’s certain is that postponing the vote will buy lawmakers more time to try and reach an agreement and possibly rope in those Republicans who would consider voting to proceed but remain committed to first tackling taxes.

During a press availability following the Democratic caucus this afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) praised Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-ME) openness in considering a fair and reasonable amendment process for bringing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to a vote, but stopped short of saying that he would hold the bill until he had secured 60 votes to proceed to the matter.

In the clip below, Reid outlines the agreement he has offered to Collins:

REID: I have worked a lot with Senator Lieberman and Senator Collins. Senator Collins has been most helpful in trying to figure a way to get this done. There was so me stuff in the paper today….

So I’m considering making it so it would be possible to offer 15 amendments. We would have an hour time agreement on those. Democrats would get 10, Republicans would get 5. We would also, if the Republicans felt they needed extra time on a couple of amendments they could choose those and that would give them an extra 4 hours. That is, they would have 4 hours on those two amendments, rather than 2 hours.

Watch it:

While it’s still unclear if Collins will take the deal, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent is reporting that if she does, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AR) is ready to join her, giving Reid the necessary 60 votes for cloture. (This is assuming that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) — who has previously said he is undecided — is willing to vote with his party).

Murkowski’s “vote will depend on how free and open the amendment process is, but she has reached the decision that don’t ask don’t tell ought to be repealed, provided that proper preparations are implemented,” her spokesman Michael Brumas told Sargent.

Throughout the negotiations, Collins has been asking for a completely open process that would allow Republicans to offer an unlimited number of amendments.

Greg Sargent is reporting that Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are having a difficult time agreeing to a “fair” process for consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act, which Collins says she supports. But she’s demanding a completely open amendment process that would allow Republicans to hijack the debate and offer non-germane amendments:

In private discussions between Collins and Reid this morning, and between their staffs over the weekend, Collins has demanded that Reid allow what’s known as “unlimited debate” on the bill in order for her to vote for repeal, the aide close to the talks says.

Reid has rejected this demand, the aide continues. The problem is that this could allow any Senator to hijack the proceedings by introducing a “non-germane amendment,” thus holding the floor.

Reid does not think Collins herself intends to do this, the aide continues. Rather, he worries that another GOP Senator who strongly opposes repeal, such as Tom Coburn or Jim DeMint, could take advantage of unlimited debate in this fashion to run out the clock.

“He can’t trust Coburn or DeMint,” the aide says. “He can’t agree to that deal.”

Reid has offered Collins a total of 15 amendments in order to get her to vote Yes — 10 for Repubicans and five for Democrats, the aide continues. Reid views this as a reasonable offer, because previous debates on defense authorization bills have had roughly this number of amendments offered, the aide adds.

But as of now, Collins has indicated this offer is “unsatisafctory,” the aide says. A Collins spokesperson denied this account in an email, but declined to elaborate.

As of this writing, Reid still intends to bring the NDAA to a vote, which advocates of repeal say will likely fail without the support of Collins. And in a move that could be interpreted as a recognition of this reality, negotiators are moving some of the must-pass military authorizations out of the NDAA and into the continuing resolution. From CQ’s John M. Donnelly:

A draft continuing resolution in the House contains several provisions that echo “must-pass” portions of the troubled defense authorization bill, setting up a backup plan in the increasingly likely event that Congress fails to clear the annual defense policy measure for the first time in nearly half a century.

The draft continuing resolution, or CR, would ensure enactment of several critical provisions that usually ensure the defense authorization bill becomes law. Those provisions include items required for military pay and bonuses, compensation for civilian employees serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and authorities needed for overseas contingency operations.

With this session of Congress quickly nearing its end, time has nearly run out for debating the defense authorization bill (S 3454) — a process that typically takes a couple of weeks. If the bill dies, so does this year’s effort to repeal the “don’t ask don’t tell” law (PL 103-160) that bars openly gay people from serving in the U.S. military.

Asked whether the inclusion of the military pay and other provisions was a tacit admission that the defense policy bill won’t move ahead, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who sits on both the Armed Service and Appropriations panels, acknowledged the bill is facing long odds.

“I’m concerned about the calendar running out,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t know if you can get it done even if you went right to Jan. 5 and worked every day.”

Meanwhile, some advocates are urging Reid to hold on bringing the authorization until he works out a compromise with the moderate senators and then stay in session past Christmas to pass the measure. One aid told Steve Benen that Collins is “basically asking for a unicorn for Christmas. We can’t give her a unicorn.” But why not? Should the negotiations for a fair time and amendment process with Collins fail, why can’t Reid highlight the absurdity of her request and then grant it, keeping the Senate in session until January 2nd to extend Republicans every opportunity to play games with military priorities?

This morning, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) — who told a local newspaper last month that he considered homosexuality a “sin” — released a statement saying that he accepted the military’s recommendations on repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and would move to vote to the measure in the lame duck session of the Senate. From his statement:

On many previous occasions, I have said that I would oppose repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell until I had heard from our servicemen and women regarding this policy. I have now carefully reviewed all of the findings, reports, and testimony from our armed forces on this matter and I accept the Pentagon’s recommendations to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. I also accept the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs’ commitment that this policy can be implemented in a manner that does not harm our military’s readiness, recruitment, or retention. We have the strongest military in the world and we will continue to do so by ensuring our troops have the resources necessary to carry out their missions. Therefore, I support the 2011 Defense Authorization Act that passed the Senate Armed Services Committee and will support procedural measures to bring it to a vote this year.

With Pryor’s commitment, the only Democratic vote that’s still in contention is that of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) who has expressed concern about overturning the policy during a time of war and, as of this writing, remains “undecided” on how to vote. If he is ultimately willing to vote on cloture, Democrats would need just two Republicans to proceed to the measure. With Sens. Brown’s, Collins’ and possibly Lugar’s support, it’s very likely that they will have more than 60 votes for the NDAA.

But it remains to be seen if Democrats will have enough time to debate the measure and if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is willing to keep the Senate in session past Christmas to ensure a “fair” process that will bring more Republicans on board. Earlier this morning, Reid took to the floor to announce that he’s “likely” to bring up the NDAA “this evening”:

REID: And I’m likely going to move to my motion to reconsider on the defense authorization act this evening. Allowing, as I will indicate at that time, time for amendments to that piece of legislation.

Watch it:

At this point, it’s unclear if those Republicans who support DADT repeal are willing to vote for cloture before considering taxes and other priorities.