After weeks of delay, the Senate looks to be putting together its schedule for a health care reform bill.

What has been holding up the process to this point is an analysis from the CBO on various scores for the different options presented by Harry Reid. But that looks to be nearing a conclusion, hopefully by the end of the week. If that’s the case, we can expect a Senate bill to roll out on Monday. The first procedural vote would occur shortly thereafter.

Senior aides and senators say Democrats plan to pivot quickly and file the first procedural vote as early as Monday. A “motion to proceed” vote, which brings the bill to the floor, would require 60 votes — a first, critical test of the caucus’s unity on procedural votes.

It would take a few days to get that motion to proceed out of the way, with debate scheduled to begin either just before or just after Thanksgiving. The month of December would be taken up with debate and amendments, and final passage would be achieved by Christmas.

That would appear to satisfy the goal of passing a bill by year’s end, but of course the Senate and House bills aren’t the same and would require a conference committee. So realistically, you wouldn’t see any final passage until January. The new backstop appears to be the State of the Union address.