In a closely-watched vote, the Senate Finance Committee approved by a 14 to 9 margin the America’s Healthy Future Act (pdf), a healthcare overhaul bill drafted by committee chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) was the only Republican committee member to cross party lines and vote in favor of the measure. The committee’s final draft of this bill was released on October 2 after weeks of contentious markup by committee members. Now that this bill has been approved, Senators Baucus, majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) face the daunting task of combining the provisions of this bill with the Affordable Health Choices Act (S. 1679) (pdf), the healthcare reform bill that has already cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Among other differences between the two bills, the former contains neither a public health insurance option nor stringent employer mandates, while the latter does.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives, whose version of the healthcare bill – America's Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) – cleared the House Ways and Means, Education and Labor, and Energy and Commerce Committees in July, is reportedly working to meld the proposals from each of these committees to draft a bill that can be brought to the House floor for a vote. Edits to the bill from the House Ways and Means Committee can be found here; those from the House Education and Labor Committee can be found here; and those from the House Energy and Commerce Committee can be found here.