Once the bill is stitched together, there will be two weeks of debate on the floor of the Senate, bringing the total number of days to get the bill through the legislative track to 17. That means the Senate Finance Committee has about five days (roughly by next Wednesday) to end the behind-the-scenes negotiations and begin its public work. Otherwise, everyone is going to have to start working through the night and on weekends—or Reid will have to reduce the number of days for public debate.

Two Senate committees are producing the health care legislation. The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has already presented its bill and is in the process of markup, through which amendments are added, debate takes place, and the legislation is rewritten. In the crucial Finance Committee, however, there’s been a snag. A bill was supposed to go to markup this week, but it’s not going to make it. Senators, who have been working behind the scenes for months, are wrangling over the so-called public option as well as how to pay for reform. Momentum for one of the ways to raise the most money—taxing some portion of the health insurance employers provide their employees—has flagged, in part, says budget committee chairman Kent Conrad, because senators have been shown polling that suggests three-quarters of the country is against such a tax.