(CNN) -- The Obama administration's $827 billion economic stimulus plan survived a key vote in the Senate, putting a compromise version of the bill on track for passage Tuesday.
The Senate is expected to vote on the stimulus bill Tuesday.
With the help of Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter, the Democrats locked in the votes needed to end debate on the bill.
The final vote was 61 in favor, 36 opposed.
The bill is expected to survive a full vote in the Senate on Tuesday, setting up a battle with the House as the two chambers try to iron out differences between their versions of the bill.
Obama wants both chambers to come to an agreement so he can have the bill on his desk by Presidents Day, which is next Monday.
The House's stimulus bill passed without a single Republican vote nearly two weeks ago. Senators spent the past week debating amendments. Late Friday, a working coalition of Democrats and some Republicans reached a compromise that trimmed billions in spending from an earlier version.
The price tag of $827 billion is roughly the same in both bodies, but the House and Senate differ on spending and tax cuts.
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Here are some other differences between the two bills:
The Senate bill, unlike the House version, would make the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits tax free. Both the Senate and House bills extend the time that jobless workers can collect benefits.
The Senate bill includes an amendment that would let those who buy a car in 2009 deduct the interest they pay on their car loan as well as the sales tax charged in the purchase. The House bill doesn't include this provision.
The Senate bill doubles the House's tax credit for first-time homebuyers to $15,000, a measure championed by Republicans in the Senate.
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The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported last week that the stimulus measure, as it's presented now, is likely to create between 1.3 million and 3.9 million jobs by the end of 2010, lowering a projected unemployment rate of 8.7 percent by up to 2.1 percentage points.