The U.S. Senate appears to have the 67 votes necessary to ratify an agreement President Barack Obama signed more than eight months ago with Russia to slash half their respective nuclear missile launchers, start back up inspections of each other's nuclear facilities and cut nearly a third of their nuclear warheads.

The third version of the START treaty gives the U.S. and Russia seven years to make the steepest cutbacks yet in their nuclear arms. But it looked as though the Senate would have a hard time overcoming a Republican filibuster to pass the measure before the end of the year.

Things changed Wednesday as Sen. Jim DeMint relented on his demand to have the entire treaty read on the Senate floor--a process that POLITICO reports could have taken up 10 precious pre-Christmas hours.

Sixty-six senators ended up voting Wednesday to move ahead with debate on the treaty, setting up a final vote as early as Thursday night. One supportive Democrat missed Wednesday's vote, meaning as long as all those that supported the procedural vote back New START in the final vote, it will be ratified.