Gregg sees 3-5 week debate on Senate health bill

It will take the Senate three to five weeks to debate its final health bill, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) asserted Wednesday.

Gregg said that the overall debate on the bill merged from the two Senate committees to pass a health reform proposal could take over a month, on top of the weeks it will take to merge those bills together.

"To do a bill this size on the floor, it'll take three to five weeks," Gregg said during an interview on the Fox Business Network.

Gregg asserted that it will take several weeks after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) unveils the bill he will have crafted from Senate Finance and HELP committee legislation for that debate to even begin.

"I would hope that we would have some time to digest what they're going to produce in this room where they're not allowing anybody in it," he explained. "And I presume it'll take them a week or so to do that. And then I would hope we'll have a couple weeks after they've done that to look at the language, look at the score, before it's brought to the floor."

Gregg criticized Reid's process to craft the bill, arguing -- like many Republicans -- that it will be behind closed doors, and only involving Democrats.