From Fox News:

Health care reform cleared a momentous hurdle Tuesday, as the Senate Finance Committee voted to send its version of the legislation to the Senate floor after months of closely watched deliberations. 

The committee voted 14-9 in favor of the package. One Republican, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, broke with her party to support the bill. All 13 Democrats on the panel voted in favor of it, while the rest of the Republicans opposed it. 

The panel was the last of five to act on health legislation, and the vote marked the biggest advance so far toward health care reform, as the committee’s legislation is considered the best building block for a compromise plan in the full Senate. 

But much work still remains on the package, and Senate Republicans made clear after the committee vote that they will continue to fight the bill. 

“It’s going to cost us an arm and a leg,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said. “The costs of this are astronomical.” 

The House still needs to bring a unified version to the floor, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will begin working with White House staff, Baucus and others to blend the Finance bill with a more liberal version passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee — before bringing a final product to the Senate floor. 

If passed, the legislation would then go to a conference committee to reconcile differences before heading to the president’s desk.