Leaders were weighing fresh concessions to abortion opponents and working to ease concerns over the bill’s treatment of illegal immigrants.

“We’re very close” to having enough votes to prevail, said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, although he added that a scheduled vote today could slip by a day or two and sought to pin the blame on possible Republican delaying tactics.

“Nice try, Representative Hoyer, but you can’t blame Republicans when the fact is you just don’t have the votes,” shot back Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for the GOP leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio.

In a struggle that combined the fate of President Barack Obama’s top domestic priority and a 2010 campaign issue, bipartisanship was not an option.

GOP leaders boasted that all 177 House Republicans stood ready to oppose the $1.