UPDATE: Sen. Bernie Sanders stopped speaking around 7:00 p.m. EST. He was on the floor for about 8.5 hours.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has taken to the Senate floor in what has amounted to a near-filibuster of President Obama's tax cut deal. Sen. Sanders--an Independent who caucuses with the Democrats--began speaking Friday morning around 10:30 a.m. EST. He was still talking on the Senate floor late in the afternoon.

According to The Huffington Post, Sanders has promised "to take as long as I can to explain to the American people the fact that we have got to do a lot better than this agreement provides."

As First Read notes, however, this is not a real filibuster because his "speech isn’t actually stopping any particular Senate business from happening today."

Sanders is against the tax bill, writing on The Huffington Post that "I think we can do better, and I am here today to take a strong stand against this bill, and I intend to tell my colleagues and the nation exactly why I am in opposition to this bill."

Watch the live feed of Sanders here.