WASHINGTON—With a bipartisan budget deal now on track to pass, the debt limit is looming as a focal point for the next high-stakes fiscal battle between Democrats and Republicans, as well as between tea-party and business-friendly factions of the GOP, as candidates position for the midterm elections. 
 
 Conservative lawmakers and advocacy groups are pushing GOP leaders to make big demands of President Barack Obama early next year in... ||||| Washington (CNN) -- A federal budget compromise that already passed the House cleared a key procedural hurdle on Tuesday in the Senate, increasing the likelihood it will win final Congressional approval this week. 
 
 President Barack Obama has signaled his support for the plan worked out by the budget committee leaders in each chamber that would guide government spending into 2015 to defuse the chances of another shutdown such as the one that took place in October. 
 
 Tuesday's vote overcame a Republican filibuster attempt that required 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to proceed on the budget measure. The count was 67-33, with a dozen Republicans joining the 55 Democrats and independents in support of the plan. 
 
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 Final approval in the Senate requires a simple majority of 51 votes. The budget plan easily passed the House last week on a 332-94 vote. 
 
 GOP concerns 
 
 The politics of the issue were clear in Tuesday's vote breakdown. Only one Republican Senator facing a primary challenge in their re-election campaigns voted with Democrats to overcome the GOP filibuster -- Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. 
 
 Alexander has indicated he will oppose the budget plan in the final vote later this week. 
 
 A new ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday showed 50% of respondents approving of the budget plan while 35% opposed it. According to the survey, a majority of Democrats and independents backed the proposal, while only 39% of Republicans liked it. 
 
 Some Senate Republicans said before Tuesday's vote that the most important thing for now was to lower the budget deficit, even if only by a small percentage, and prevent further government shutdowns like the 16-day stoppage in October that proved politically damaging to the GOP. 
 
 Sen. Ron Johnson, who was lobbied to support the bill negotiated by fellow Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, said he wanted "to make sure we avoid any additional government shutdowns." 
 
 "The federal government does enough harm to our economy," Johnson said. "We don't need to add additional harm by this crisis management. In the end this is not the kind of deal I would want to see. I'm sure it's not the kind of deal Paul Ryan would want to produce." 
 
 Conservative GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said in a statement that "sometimes the answer has to be yes." 
 
 "Ultimately, his agreement upholds the principles conservatives stand for and, with Democrats controlling the White House and the Senate, it is the best we can hope for," he said of the plan Ryan negotiated with Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington. 
 
 CNN vote count: Budget deal nearing Senate approval, but not there yet 
 
 Final congressional approval of the elusive budget agreement would mark a rare win for bipartisanship and a step up for a Congress infected with political dysfunction and held in low public esteem with midterm elections less than a year off. 
 
 Democrats wary, too 
 
 While Democrats supported the bill, many had concerns. 
 
 More liberal senators -- like Tom Harkin of Iowa -- complained that an unemployment benefit extension was not included in the deal. 
 
 "There's over a million people now who cannot find a job, out of work, and right at this time of year their unemployment insurance is being cut off," Harkin told Radio Iowa last week. "It's really unconscionable." 
 
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 Budget deal 
 
 The budget agreement, which was months in the making, eases spending caps for the next two fiscal years while softening the impact of across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, on defense and non-defense programs. 
 
 Overall, it calls for more than $20 billion in deficit reduction. 
 
 Current federal spending expires in mid-January, raising the possibility of another shutdown at that time if there's not a new agreement in place to keep federal coffers filled. 
 
 The strong vote in the House on the budget plan on Thursday brought a collective sigh of relief among supporters, who initially thought it would sail through the Senate, where bipartisanship has been more the norm than in the sharply divided House. 
 
 Don't expect Boehner to totally change his tune 
 
 But after reading details of the agreement, many Senate Republicans -- including several in leadership positions -- came out against the bill. 
 
 "I'd really like to stay within the (spending) caps," complained GOP Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas. "This busts the caps and as a result I'll vote against it." 
 
 Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina complained that the plan reduces military benefits. 
 
 2016 in play 
 
 Three leading tea party-backed senators with 2016 presidential aspirations -- Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of Florida -- also have come out against the budget compromise for similar reasons. 
 
 CNN's Dana Bash, Paul Steinhauser and Dan Merica contributed to this story. ||||| WASHINGTON, DC : On Monday, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), pictured here in 2012, along with Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) added their names to a growing list of Republican sentators who declared their support for the bipartisan deal. (Bill O'Leary/WASHINGTON POST) 
 
 Despite a concerted attack by conservative advocacy groups, a bipartisan deal to roll back sharp spending cuts known as the sequester appeared on track to clear the Senate after a growing number of Republicans declared their support for the measure. 
 
 On Monday, Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah) and Johnny Isakson (Ga.) added their names to a list that included Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine) and Ronald H. Johnson (Wis.). 
 
 At least two others who were undecided on the substance of the agreement said they will nonetheless help the Senate’s 55 Democrats assemble the 60 votes needed to clear a critical procedural hurdle Tuesday morning. 
 
 The federal budget accord “isn’t everything I’d hoped it would be, and it isn’t what I would have written,” Hatch said in a statement. “But sometimes the answer has to be yes.” 
 
 The deal, struck by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), is intended to end nearly three years of acrimony over the budget in Washington. It would cancel half the sequester cuts for the current fiscal year, replace them with other savings and allow Congress to avert another government shutdown in January. 
 
 Last week, the agreement sailed through the House on a vote of 332 to 94, raising hopes that Republicans were finally drawing to a close an era of uncompromising confrontation over the budget. But trouble quickly cropped up in the usually more moderate Senate, where a slew of tea party heroes — and GOP incumbents facing tea-party challengers — lambasted the deal. 
 
 Following the lead of outside groups such as Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth, several Republican senators complained that the agreement would allow agency spending to rise over the next two years in exchange for the vow of spending reductions nearly a decade from now. 
 
 “It increases spending by $60 billion over the next two years but promises to pay for it with cuts over the next 10 [years] — something that we know Congress never gets back to actually carrying out,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), a possible contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. 
 
 More worrying for advocates of the agreement, two key Republican allies in the fight against the sequester — Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) — said late last week that they, too, would vote against the measure. Although the agreement would cancel a hit to the Pentagon budget set for January, an outcome Graham and Ayotte have been campaigning for months to prevent, the pair complained that the deal also would dial back cost-of-living increases for the youngest military retirees. 
 
 “It’s unacceptable to single out our men and women in uniform in this way,” Ayotte said. 
 
 Some Democrats, meanwhile, were grumbling that the deal includes no provision for extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless. Those benefits are set to expire at the end of December, cutting off 1.3 million people. 
 
 Although senior Senate aides never doubted their ability to assemble the 50 votes needed to pass the agreement, their ability to get 60 votes to squash a threatened GOP filibuster seemed less certain. So Murray and Ryan worked through the weekend to shore up support. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) also reached out privately to a few of his closest friends. 
 
 By Monday morning, the tide had turned, and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, said on MSNBC that it is “safe to say” the measure will pass the chamber. A final vote could come as soon as Tuesday evening, if Senate Republicans agree to speed things up. Otherwise, the chamber is likely to send the measure to the White House late Wednesday. 
 
 The proposal would raise about $85 billion over the next decade through a variety of policies, including trimming pensions for civil-service workers and military retirees younger than 62, raising security fees for airline passengers and extending the sequester for Medicare providers an additional two years, through 2023. 
 
 About $62 billion of those savings would go to replace a portion of the sequester in fiscal 2014 and 2015, restoring spending for the Pentagon and domestic agencies. The rest of the savings, about $23 billion, would go toward trimming deficits projected to exceed $6 trillion over the next decade. 
 
 In announcing his support, Hatch said the agreement is “built on the necessary consensus that reflects divided government.” 
 
 “I appreciate the hard work of Paul Ryan, Speaker Boehner and House Republicans in crafting this commendable compromise that reduces our debt over the long-term, prevents another government shutdown, and stops the budget battles that have rocked America with economic uncertainty and political pessimism,” Hatch said. “Much more work needs to be done. . . . My hope is that this budget agreement paves the way to greater stability, lasting deficit reduction, and the political will to tackle those challenges in the near future.” ||||| Republicans in the Senate could slow the progress of the bipartisan budget that passed the House last week, amid signs that a procedural vote scheduled for Tuesday may be tight. 
 
 Although Democratic supporters of the deal in the Senate believe it will attract enough support to achieve the required 60 votes to pass the procedural motion, some are warning that frayed relations with Republicans could result in the numbers being tight. 
 
 The $1tn deal, forged between Republican congressman Paul Ryan and Democratic senator Patty Murray, passed overwhelmingly in the House, by 332 to 94. If passed by the Senate, the agreement, which reduces blanket spending cuts and raises some new revenues without increasing taxes, would stave off the threat of another government shutdown for two years. 
 
 However, the compromise does not entirely eradicate the possibility of the kind of brinksmanship which took Washington to the precipice earlier this year. While promoting his bill as a means to avoid another calamitous government closure, Ryan indicated that Republicans were still considering what they could "get out" of possible negotiations over the debt limit. 
 
 “We don't want nothing out of this debt limit. We're going to decide what it is we can accomplish out of this debt-limit fight,” Ryan told Fox News Sunday. 
 
 The White House has repeatedly said it will not negotiate over the debt limit, arguing that the routine increase to the Treasury's borrowing capacity should not be used as a bargaining tool. In reality, administration officials did discuss the limit during talks in October, and some Republicans may seek to use the technique to foster further concessions in an election year. 
 
 For now, Ryan is focused on persuading Republicans in the Senate to support his bill and avoid a filibuster. If the bill had unanimous Democrat support, at least five Republicans would have to vote with them to move to a final vote. But if, as expected, a handful of Democrats angry that it fails to renew unemployment benefits for over 1 million Americans decided to vote against, more Republican votes will be required. 
 
 Richard Durbin, the Senate majority whip, estimated that about eight Republicans were needed to support the bill. “The struggle is still on in the United States Senate,” he told CBS’s Face the Nation. “I feel we’ll have a good, strong showing from the Democratic side. But we need bipartisan support to pass it.” 
 
 Conservatives have complained that the Ryan-Murray deal will increase federal spending and reduce support for working-age military veterans. Although unrelated to the budget, Republicans in the Senate are also fuming over a decision by Democrats to change the rules over the confirmation of administration appointments – robbing the Republicans of an opportunity to obstruct Barack Obama’s nominations to key posts. 
 
 Democratic majority leader Harry Reid held two all-night sessions in the Senate last week, to force through Obama’s appointments. In an ambitious schedule, Reid is aiming to secure the confirmation of Jeh Johnson, Obama’s choice to replace Janet Napolitano as secretary for homeland security, and possibly Janet Yellen, who would become the first woman to head the Federal Reserve, before the Senate goes into recess on Friday. 
 
 However, Reid’s focus this week will inevitably be on the budget, particularly given that so many senior Republican senators, including the minority leader Mitch McConnell and party whip John Cornyn, have signalled their opposition to the deal. Only a handful of Republicans have so far signalled that they may vote in favour of the bill, including, most recently, the Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson. 
 
 The decision by Johnson, a Tea Party-aligned senator, to support the deal could be pivotal. The host of staunchly conservative groups which often steer Republican votes, such as Club For Growth and Heritage Action, lambasted the budget deal because it waters down planned spending cuts. 
 
 Most Republicans in the House took the unusual step of ignoring the guidance from the rightwing groups, but Republican senators are seemingly more cautious. As Durbin pointed out, they include potential presidential hopefuls, who would want to maintain the support of the radical conservative base, as well more moderate Republicans, such as McConnell and Cornyn, facing primary challenges from Tea Party opponents in the new year.
– Conservatives still don't love the bipartisan budget deal passed by the House last week, but as expected, it advanced in the Senate today after a number of Republican senators declared their support. In some cases, their quite tepid support: The deal "isn’t everything I’d hoped it would be, and it isn’t what I would have written," reads Orrin Hatch's statement, per the Washington Post. "But sometimes the answer has to be yes." Along with the backing of John McCain and at least five other Republicans, the Senate advanced the measure over a filibuster threshold on a 67-33 vote, the AP reports. That means it will pass the Senate no later than tomorrow and head to the White House for President Obama's signature. The bipartisan Paul Ryan-Patty Murray deal ran into trouble with the Senate despite easily passing the House, thanks to what the Post refers to as "a slew of tea party heroes" raising issues with it. Even many Democrats have problems with the bill, particularly because it doesn't renew unemployment benefits for more than a million people, CNN reports. But the deal means two blissful years of no government shutdown threats, the Guardian reports. Even so, don't get comfortable: The next battle will be over the debt ceiling, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Treasury says it should be raised by early March in order to avoid a government default, and conservatives want to try and get whatever they can in return. Then again, some think it may not be worth the potential bad press; plus, Obama has repeatedly said he won't negotiate.