Reid: 'The next few weekends -- plural -- we will be working'

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) put colleagues on notice on Monday: Cancel your weekend plans, and be ready to work.

In a floor speech kicking off the chamber's healthcare debate, Reid said that the Senate would indeed be working around-the-clock to finish its health bill before the stated deadline of the Christmas holiday recess.

"The next weekends -- plural -- we will be working," Reid said. "There is not an issue more important than finishing this legislation."

The debate kicks off Monday in the Senate, and will feature dozens of amendments offered by members of both parties over the course of weeks.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said the debate should, in fact, last weeks, though he on Monday blamed the around-the-clock schedule on Democrats' intentness on finishing the legislation.

Reid said that senators have known for a while that they'd likely have to cancel their weekend plans.

"We're going to have to work Saturdays and Sundays," Reid said. "This crisis -- and it is a crisis -- is too central to our nation's health to not work."