WASHINGTON -- The US Senate voted on Thursday to end debate on the historic financial overhaul, setting the stage for final approval of the landmark legislation.

By a vote of 60 to 38, the Senate paved the way for Congress to send President Barack Obama the most sweeping financial regulatory bill since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Senate leaders set a series of final votes for 2 pm Thursday.

The House of Representatives approved the bill on June 30.

The over-2,000-page legislation, the most ambitious rewrite of financial regulations in decades, aims to curb Wall Street's high- risk practices blamed for the global economic meltdown of 2008, solve the systemic risk of the "too big to fail" problem among financial firms, and create a consumer protection agency to better protect Americans.