Final passage of health care reform ran into a minor snag late Wednesday night as the Senate parliamentarian Alan Frumin struck two provisions from the bill deemed ineligible for passage under the upper chamber’s complicated budget reconciliation rules.

Senate Democratic leaders were hoping to simply pass all the measures in the House bill through a simple majority vote, however, Senate Republicans have complicated that process, and now the bill will have to be sent back to the House again.

The portions of the bill that did not pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian are pieces of the student loan reforms that were attached to the health care reform bill and are not likely to prevent the final passage of the bill.

“The parliamentarian struck two minor provisions tonight from the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, but this bill’s passage in the Senate is still a big win for the American people,” a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, (D-NV), said, according to ABC News. “These changes do not impact the reforms to the student loan programs and the important investments in education. We are confident the House will quickly pass the bill with these minor changes.”

The Senate is expected to vote on the final by bill 2 p.m. today and the House could follow suit later on in the evening, according to reports.

Wednesday night and on into Thursday morning, Senate Republicans introduced 29 amendments to the health care reform bill in an effort to derail the legislation. Democrats were able to stave off the last-ditch Republican effort by defeating each one. If Republicans were successful in passing even one amendment to the bill, it could have imperiled the bill’s passage and possibly took a major victory away from President Obama and Congressional Democrats.

Despite the delay, the bill is expected to pass given the two fixes needed to be voted on in the House are considered minor and unrelated to health care reform. On Sunday, the House passed the Senate’s version of the bill with a few minor tweaks in a 219-212 vote.

“We see no impact on the score and very insignificant impact on any policy,” Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said, according to The New York Times. “This is not going to be a problem.”

The Senate remained in session until nearly 3 a.m. Thursday, as Democrats were successful at thwarting a number of Republican amendments to the bill, many of which were frivolous and designed to embarrass Democrats and/or derail the entire process. One such amendment would have banned sex offenders from obtaining erectile dysfunction medications. Another measure attempted to strike down same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital.

“It’s very clear there is no attempt to improve this bill,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said. “There is an attempt to destroy this bill. Not a single one has been adopted. I don’t know what they are trying to accomplish here.”

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