Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Senate will take a final vote Saturday afternoon on legislation that would overturn the military ban on openly gay troops.

The vote on ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is set for 3 p.m. before senators turn to a nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Passage would send the military measure to the White House.

Senators cleared the way for final action with a 63-33 vote earlier Saturday to move the bill ahead.

The House passed an identical version of the bill this week.

Repeal would mean that, for the first time in American history, gays would be openly accepted by the military and could acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being kicked out. [...]

The 63-33 test vote all but guarantees the legislation will pass the Senate, possibly by day's end, and reach the president's desk before the new year. [...]

Sen. John McCain, Obama's GOP rival in 2008, led the opposition. Speaking on the Senate floor minutes before the vote, the Arizona Republican acknowledged he didn't have the votes to stop the bill. He blamed elite liberals with no military experience for pushing their social agenda on troops during wartime.

"They will do what is asked of them," McCain said of service members. "But don't think there won't be a great cost."