IF YOU WERE WAITING TO PLAN YOUR SUMMER VACATION: At the Washington Post, Ezra Klein has an exclusive look at the Senate Finance Committee's provisional schedule, which includes a rough timetable for its partner committee--Health, Educaiton, Labor, and Pensions (HELP)--as well as its counterparts in the House of Representatives. Short verison: The Senate committees will mark up later this month, the House early next month. The goal is to pass legislation by late July/early August, resolve differences over the next two months and get a bill to Obama's desk by October. (Yes, I think that's doable.)
STILL FILLINIG IN THE BLANKS: At Politico, Carrie Budoff Brown has exclusive (or what was exclusive, back on Friday) pdf's of circulating legislation from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. That's Ted Kenendy's committee and, as discussed previously, it will likely lay down a marker somewhere to the left of the Finance Committee--both because its members are more liberals and because, unlike Finance, it doesn't have to specify financing. The legislation is about 75 to 85 percent of the way there, according to sources consulted over the weekend, although the still-be-determined details contain some potentially controversial stuff.
WHEN CON SOUNDS A LIKE LOT PRO: At Talking Points Memo, Josh Marhsall has an exclusive rejoinder to the critics of a public insurance option. OK, it's not really an exclusive news item. But it's pithy and worth reading all the same.
--Jonathan Cohn