Stabenow: Senate expects to take up health bill on floor next week

Senators expect to take up a healthcare package on the floor next week, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said Tuesday evening.

As the House prepares to move forward with its own healthcare package, the Senate is expecting to move quickly on it next, and has the votes to do so, Stabenow said.

"Well, we will take it up as soon as the House passes it," Stabenow said during an appearance on MSNBC. "Sometime next week, is what we're assuming now."

The House is moving toward a vote this weekend on a rule that makes changes to the healthcare bill the Senate had passed last year, a vote which would deem that Senate bill as having passed the House. 

Stabenow said that it was her expectation that once the House finishes its work, the bill would proceed directly to the Senate floor.

"As I understand it now it would go directly to the floor," she said. 

The Michigan Democrat also expressed confidence that the Senate wouldn't have the same problems finding along the lines of the hectic vote connoting Democratic leaders in the House are facing this week.

"I have absolutely no reason to believe the votes aren't there. Everything I hear from colleagues, everything we discuss together indicates to me and gives me confidence that the votes are there," she said. "And we're certainly willing to demonstrate that to the House."