Charting Course Of Health Care LegislationNow that the Senate Finance Committee has passed its health care overhaul bill, Senate Democratic leaders face the formidable task of pairing it with a more liberal bill passed earlier this year by another Senate committee. Then, they have to take it to the floor for debate.

Now that the Senate Finance Committee has passed its health care overhaul bill, Senate Democratic leaders face the formidable task of pairing it with a more liberal bill passed earlier this year by another Senate committee. Then, they have to take it to the floor for debate.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

Today in the Senate, the process of merging bills is just getting started.

NPR's Julie Rovner spent the afternoon up on Capitol Hill. And she joins us in the studiocare overhaul bills into a single plan that could win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Reid also began private meetings Wednesday with fellow Democrats and the White House to merge his chamber's two health care overhaul bills into a single plan that could win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid began private meetings Wednesday with fellow Democrats and the White House to merge his chamber's two health care overhaul bills into a single plan that could win a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

Work on combining the Senate's Finance and health committees' bills was supposed to be, in theory at least,