WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate is slated to take a key test vote on a variation of the line-item veto -- a measure first granted by Congress in 1996 and subsequently deemed unconstitutional in a 1998 Supreme Court ruling.

The Senate filed cloture on an amendment sponsored by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-New Hampshire, to the minimum wage bill Monday that gives line-item rescission authority to the president. The cloture action sets up a test vote on the measure no later than Wednesday. Aides on both sides say they're unclear what the vote breakdown is likely to be.

If ultimately passed, the president could submit to Congress items from a spending bill he would like to eliminate. The Congress would then vote up or down on that package.

Such action gets around the constitutional problems the Supreme Court raised with the line item veto because Congress ultimately votes to rescind the spending.Gregg tried to get the line item measure attached to the ethics bill last week but agreed to move it to the minimum wage bill to get around objections from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-West Virginia.