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Crumbling down. >> i like the analogy. we'll come back to that in a second. phil mattingly, i don't know if you heard the analogy. this doesn't make the whole thing crumble to the ground. so, how significant is this procedural vote and does it really matter initial no's or yes's, i mean, your thoughts. >> reporter: it's hugely significant. i think there's no question about it. i mean, we can read between the lines right now and dean heller comes out as a yes, when rob portman comes out, these are holdout senators who have had very serious and significant policy issues that have essentially, on...

Not just from senate majority leader mitch mcconnell, not just from the president and vice president, even from the rank and file, trying to get their members to yes. to kick this process off. how senate majority leader mcconnell wanted this to go is there would be an agreed upon amendment that all 50 senators or more agreed upon to move forward. a large-skafl amendment that would i -- scale amendment that would strip out any other version of the bill and that they could get the votes and kick this off. at least move this back to the house as this process would work. that effort has failed rep...

Indeed will get something of a win here. a much-needed win. but this health care bill and the outcome will say a lot about president trump's agenda and the republican party's agenda going forward. christine and dave? >> all right. jeff zeleny. thank you. you heard him mention the two-step process. so can the vote pass? and if it does, what's next? cnn's phil mattingly has more on that from capitol hill. >> reporter: this is the moment we've been waiting for. the press, the public, the senators themselves, a vote, a vote is scheduled this afternoon on at least the motion to proceed to the senat...

Prepared to cast this ballot in the affirmative. so this was a lot of work on behalf of mitch mcconnell and his republican caucus, and essentially, what he has done here is he's promised all these republican senators the opportunity here over the next couple of days to hash this thing out and come up with some sort of a plan that they can then take to conference with the house republicans and just continue this process along to get to a bill that they can all feel comfortable with, ultimately passing. but brooke, as you've seen over these past few weeks, that is still a tall order. this may be...

Work. that effort has failed repeatedly. so where does that leave us? at least according to senator corker, the wild west. if the procedural vote passes, that would mean a wide-open amendment process. any senator, republican or democrat, could offer any amendment they see fit to change the house-passed bill the senate is considering. as long as senate republicans are short of votes, we might not know until they walk on to the floor whether they have them. what's clear, they're making the last push, they very clearly are going to have this vote today. it will likely be must-see tv. at least as ...