The U.S. Senate today rejected a plan previously passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would have substantially cut government spending and raised the federal debt limit contingent on a balanced budget proposal, leaving Congress up in the air about how to resolve the impasse over the debt ceiling, The New York Times reported.

Senators voted 51 to 46, along party lines, to set aside the measure, known as the “cut, cap and balance” bill.

After the vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said the Senate would not immediately move ahead with a procedural maneuver proposed by Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, to increase the debt limit. He said the Senate will instead await the results of negotiations between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner over a broad deficit reduction package.

“The path to avert default now runs through the House of Representatives,” Reid said in an interview after the vote.

Obama said in a town hall meeting this morning that he was willing to agree to “historic” spending cuts in an effort to trim the nation’s deficit and urged Congress to come together and reach a deal. He said it was not conceivable that the country would default on its debt.

But he repeated his demand that spending cuts be accompanied by tax increases.