"We hope to have a vote today. Do we have the votes? We believe we do," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said amid bitter debate and haggling behind the scenes over the more than 900-billion-dollar package.
Reid said he thought the chamber's 58 Democrats would rally at least two Republicans "of good will" behind Obama's stimulus plan to reach the 60 votes needed to thwart any parliamentary delaying tactics.
And he praised moderate lawmakers -- including Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson and Maine Republican Susan Collins -- looking to win over wavering colleagues by paring down the measure, saying they sought to "strengthen the bill."
"We need a handful of Republican senators to make it happen. That's the reality of the numbers," said the Senate's number two Democrat, Richard Durbin of Illinois.
But "we'd rather pass a good bill with 65 votes than a bill that doesn't work with 80 votes," said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.
With Obama's mid-February deadline around the corner, Democrats piled pressure on Republicans to join them, a hard sell after not one Republican voted "aye" last week when the House of Representatives approved its version.
Republicans stuck to their guns, charging that the measure had too much spending and too few tax cuts and that they had been shut out of the legislative process -- but Democrats showed no patience with their arguments.
"Those who are talking about cutting massive amounts of money out of this bill are also cutting massive amounts of jobs," Durbin told reporters, warning that spending too little now could mean spending much more later.
"If we're going to toss a teacup of water on this fire today, we'll be back with firetrucks in months to come," said Durbin, who vowed to support "compromise that's reasonable and that brings in votes too pass the package."
Renewed Senate debate and behind-the-scenes bargaining came as new government figures showed US jobless claims soared to their highest level since October 1982, with more US workers on the unemployment rolls than at any time since the data were first published in 1967.
Obama also ramped up public pressure tactics, rejecting what he described as Republican overreliance on tax cuts and warning that "this recession might linger for years" if nothing is done now.
"Every day, our economy gets sicker -- and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now," he wrote in a Washington Post opinion column.
Senate passage would trigger a "conference" with the House to craft a compromise between their rival bills, followed by a new round of voting in each chamber to send the final legislation to Obama's desk.
The size of the Senate version was unclear, with more than a dozen amendments set to face votes and moderates pushing to cut about 50-80 billion dollars.
Durbin also bluntly defended the Senate's votes late Wednesday to dilute but not remove a "Buy American" clause in a massive economic stimulus plan, saying US dollars should create US jobs.
"The purpose of this program, asking taxpayers to sacrifice, is really not to create jobs in the European Union," said Durbin. "I want to create jobs in Illinois."
Major US trading partners including Europe and Canada have denounced the measure, while some experts warn it could spark a trade war and others warn that it could affect any products with even one component that is not US-made.
"I'm willing to work on that aspect of it," Durbin said of the component issue.
The original clause barred stimulus spending on a project unless all of the iron, steel and manufactured goods involved are made in the United States.
The diluted language says the provision must be "applied in a manner consistent with United States obligations under international agreements."
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