UPDATE (at 5:38 PST, 3/1/2012) -- The crowdfunding bills seem to really be picking up steam now. Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says he'll push them in his chamber. The Senate Banking Committee will also hold another hearing on crowdfunding March 6.

In recent weeks, the Crowdfunding bills being considered on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. have begun to languish a bit. The fear that a legal means for any investor from the crowd to get in on the ground floor of homegrown startups had become a casualty of election year politics began to seem more justified with each passing day.

Until yesterday.

The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act--introduced by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and passed with a bipartisan majority of the House in November--along with two other competing bills that would impose different requirements and restrictions on potential investors from the crowd, has been stuck in the Senate since the start of the holiday season.

But now McHenry's bill has been folded into the "Jumpstart Our Business Startups" or JOBS Act, along with five other bills previously approved by the House Financial Services Committee that seek to open up capital markets.

"The bills that make up the legislative package announced today came out of our committee with strong bipartisan support. They will empower small businesses and entrepreneurs to invest, hire and expand. They will help put Americans back to work.” said Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL).

While bundling the crowdfunding bill into the JOBS Act is more like a step sideways than a step forward, it does improve the bill's chances significantly by including it in a package of legislation with more collective weight behind it. But as always, the major stumbling block is the Senate.

Although all the bills in the JOBS package have enjoyed overwhelming bi-partisan support for the most part, there's no telling how it will be received in Capitol Hill's more stodgy, slow-moving smaller chamber, even with President Obama's professed support of a crowdfunding bill.

For more on the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act and its competing bills, be sure to read Carl Esposti's look at all three and the alternative concept being touted by an association of state regulators.