U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin praised the efforts of Senate Democrats who sought a bipartisan agreement on health care reform, but he also noted that when push comes to shove, Democrats, as the majority party, are obligated to ensure that real reform actually passes.

“Both Senate committees can be proud that their bills are a part of a robust bipartisan process,” Harkin said, adding that the reform proposal from the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was presented after the committee had considered more than 200 Republican amendments and accepted 161. U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) spent months negotiating with with key Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee, including U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley from Iowa, in an attempt to bring forth bipartisan legislation.

“I think [Baucus] bent over backwards to meet their demands and include their ideas,” he said and noted that all three of the key Republicans involved in the negotiations with Baucus have decided not to support the resulting bill. In addition, all Republicans on the HELP Committee, regardless of how involved they were in the mark-up process, ultimately took a party-line stance against the committee’s bill.

“It is their right to choose this partisan course,” Harkin said. “But just as surely, Democrats are the majority party in Congress, and we have a responsibility to lead. And to lead is to propose. That’s what we did in the HELP Committee in July, and [the] Finance [Committee] will follow suit next week.”

Harkin is now even more optimistic than he was previously that a final reform bill will be sent by Congress to Pres. Barack Obama before Christmas — “or maybe even Thanksgiving.”