By Jim Abrams of The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans on Tuesday thwarted a Democratic attempt to add investor protections to legislation aimed at helping small businesses, leaving Democrats scrambling to find their next course of action.

Democrats also were stymied in an effort to link the small business bill, called the JOBS Act, to an extension and expansion of the Export-Import Bank, an agency that provides financing for U.S. companies trying to sell products overseas.

With those two Democratic reversals, Democrats postponed a vote on ending the debate and moving the bill toward passage. The House passed the legislation two weeks ago by a 390-23 margin and President Barack Obama supported that bill, which would relax federal regulations that can impede small businesses and startups from finding investors and going public.

Both Senate votes Tuesday were 55-44 to advance the amendments under a procedure that required 60 votes.

The bipartisan concord that existed in the House largely disappeared in the Senate, with Republicans nearly united in resisting Democratic efforts to increase investor protections and to attach the Ex-Im Bank bill to the measure.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said many Republicans support the Ex-Im Bank, which has strong backing among the business community, but adding it to the small business bill “would only delay passage of this bipartisan jobs bill.” His Republican colleagues fell in line, including Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee and a supporter of the measure to reauthorize the bank.

The small business bill, which its House Republican supporters refer to as the JOBS Act, would exempt small businesses and startups from some Securities and Exchange Commission regulations. The centerpiece for the six bills in the package is a provision that would reduce the costs of companies seeking to go public by phasing in over five years SEC regulations that apply to what are categorized as “emerging growth companies.” That status would be in effect for companies with annual gross revenue of less than $1 billion.

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