Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Senate Republicans intend to block action on virtually all Democratic-backed legislation unrelated to tax cuts and government spending in the current postelection session of Congress, officials said Tuesday, adding that the leadership has quietly collected signatures on a letter pledging to carry out the strategy. 
  
 If carried out, it would doom Democratic-backed attempts to end the Pentagon's practice of discharging openly gay members of the military service and give legal status to young illegal immigrants who join the military or attend college. 
  
 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has made both measures a priority as Democrats attempt to enact legislation long sought by groups that supported them in the recent midterm elections. 
  
 A nuclear arms treaty with Russia that President Barack Obama wants ratified would not be affected, since any debate would take place under different rules than those that apply to legislation. Even so, its passage is not assured as Republicans are seeking concessions from the White House. 
  
 Officials who disclosed the new Republican maneuver did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss it. 
  
 It was not known how many of the Senate's 42 Republicans had signed the draft letter, which the leadership intends to make public quickly. 
  
 Senate Democrats need 60 votes to overcome any delaying tactics, meaning they could be thwarted if 41 Republicans join in the commitment. 
  
 Democrats' chances of passing politically charged legislation will dim when the new Congress convenes in January, since Republicans will take control of the House and gain more Senate seats. 
  
 The letter comes after comments by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and others in his party that the voters made it clear in the elections they want lawmakers to focus on economic issues. 
  
 "Despite what some Democrats in Congress have suggested, voters did not signal they wanted more cooperation on the Democrats' big-government policies that most Americans oppose," McConnell and incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, wrote in an op-ed article published in the Washington Post. ||||| From NBC’s Ken Strickland and Kelly O'Donnell 
  
 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced this morning that Republicans will block any legislation from coming to the Senate floor until two key economic issues are addressed: funding the government (the “continuing resolution” which must pass to prevent a government shutdown) and the extension of the Bush-era tax cuts. 
  
 McConnell said that members of his caucus are united in the pledge to use procedural votes to prevent any other non-economic issues -- including the new START treaty, the DREAM Act, or the defense authorization bill that contains a potential repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy – from coming to the floor for debate. 
  
 "Republicans have pleaded with Democrats to put aside their wish-list - to focus on the things Americans want us to focus on," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "They've ignored us. The voters repudiated their agenda at the polls. They've ignored them." 
  
 In a letter signed by all 42 members of the GOP caucus, Republicans write that, "with little time left in this Congressional session, legislative scheduling should be focused on these critical priorities.” 
  
 “While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate's attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike,” the letter reads. 
  
 Speaking on the Senate floor this morning, before McConnell made his remarks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid slammed the GOP tactic as "very cynical, but very obvious and very transparent." 
  
 "With this letter, they have simply put in writing a political strategy Republicans have pursued this entire Congress," he said. "Namely: obstruct, delay; obstruct delay." 
  
 Msnbc.com's Carrie Dann contributed. |||||
A:
All 42 Senate Republicans have signed a letter pledging to block all legislation during the lame-duck session until the Senate addresses the Bush-era tax cuts and funding the government—the latter of which must pass in order to prevent a shutdown of the government, MSNBC reports. This could spell disaster for the Dems’ fight against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and their efforts to offer legal status to illegal immigrants who go to college or join the military, the AP notes. “With little time left in this Congressional session, legislative scheduling should be focused on these critical priorities,” McConnell writes in a letter to Reid signed by all 42 members of the caucus. “While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate's attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike.”