They'll Be Back Tuesday

The Senate Finance Committee's health care markup, which has been going on since Tuesday with a total of 564 amendments on the agenda, has finally adjourned for the weekend after hours upon hours of voting and debate each day. The committee will resume marking up the "chairman's mark"--Chairman Max Baucus's draft legislation--on Tuesday, at which point it's expected to consider adding a public option to the bill (which currently provides for co-ops), in the form of an amendment offered by Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). It's not expected to pass, as the co-op plan was engineered and pushed forward as a compromise by some Democrats in the room (Baucus and Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota). It's long been public knowledge that "at least three" Democrats in the Senate oppose a public option, and the intriguing part on Tuesday will be exactly how many Democrats on the committee support it.