[Tony Harris, Cnn Anchor:] Let's get started. Time for your top of the hour reset. I'm Tony Harris in the CNN NEWSROOM. It is noon on Capitol Hill, where a Senate committee is working towards a major vote today on health care reform. It is 8:30 in the evening in Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are wondering if and how many reinforcements they'll get. And it is 9:00 a.m. in California where heavy rain is falling and fears of mudslides are rising fast. So, let's get started. The push for health care reform reaches a potential turning point today. The Senate Finance Committee set to vote on its version of a health care overhaul. The vote would be a step forward for President Obama's top domestic priority. Live now to Capitol Hill and congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar. And Brianna, we talked last hour about how health care reform still has a long road ahead. But this is a key vote. Explain to us why it is so important.
[Brianna Keilar, Cnn Congressional Correspondent:] For so many reasons, Tony. One, it is the fifth and final committee to move forward with a bill on health care reform. There's that. And there's also, this vote today is going to be a key look into whether or not Democrats will be able to get some Republican support, because they haven't been able to do it. And we're keeping an eye on Senator Olympia Snowe, that Republican who hasn't said that she's not voting for it. So, we're waiting to see if she will. And not only that, Tony, this is the only bill. This one that the Senate Finance Committee will vote on today, the only bill without that public option, without the government-run insurance plan, so it's the most conservative of all of the bills as well.
[Harris:] Yes. And take a moment and explain why this bill is so unique.
[Keilar:] Well, the price tag, first off, $829 billion. It's the only bill that falls underneath that $900 billion threshold set by President Obama. Also, it includes health care cooperatives, those nonprofit health care co-ops, instead of that public option. And there is an individual mandate which would require all Americans to get health insurance. This is not unique to this bill, but what is, is that it lacks an employer mandate, a strong employer mandate, forcing employers to contribute to their employees' health insurance, as the other bills do. And it's also important to highlight, Tony, like the other bills, this one includes making sure insurance companies can't deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition and cannot cap your benefits over the course of a year or over your lifetime.
[Harris:] You mentioned Olympia Snowe. Any chance at all of Republican support?
[Keilar:] There is a chance, but we don't know the answer yet. We caught up with her as she went into this hearing, and still she two not be pinned down. But she did slam a report that came out from the insurance industry that says this plan here today would increase health insurance premiums for Americans. So, certainly a sign that Democrats should hold out hope that they can get her support. But we're waiting and watching.
[Harris:] Yes. OK. Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill for us. Brianna, thank you. Today's vote sets the stage for the largest debate on health care reform. Here's a look at what happens next. The bill the Finance Committee votes on today has to be merged, melded with a bill passed by the Senate HELP Committee. The full Senate then debates and votes on that bill. Three House bills must also be combined. The House then debates and votes on its bill. Finally, the Senate and House bills have to be merged, and both chambers vote on the final bill. Reverend Jesse Jackson says just adding more police won't solve the teen violence problem in Chicago. The beating death of 16-year- old honors student Derrion Albert shined a national spotlight on the problem. Today, Jackson rode the bus with students to the high school Derrion attended. He said he wanted to highlight the problems the students face.
[Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/push Coalition:] This is a state of emergency given the patterns of violence and the patterns of killing. They have to get up earlier to go to school, go to a zone of conflict, and get back an hour later. They need more access to school and guaranteed passage, and laptops, not just merely more police.
[Harris:] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for two hours today. The talks took place in Medvedev's home outside Moscow. Clinton met earlier with her Russian counterpart. Key issues arms control, missile defense and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
[Hillary Clinton, Secretary Of State:] Iran's nuclear program remains a matter of serious concern. And we're working closely with Russia, through the P-5 plus 1 process. We had a constructive meeting in Geneva on October 1st, and we are working to ensure that Iran moves forward with us on this engagement track.
[Harris:] Well, the Pentagon has pushed up its deadline for a new 15-ton bomb capable of destroying hidden weapons bunkers like the kind in Iran and North Korea. Officials say they do not have an intended target, but they want the bomb ready sooner than originally planned. The new non-nuclear bomb will be the United States' largest. It is said to be 10 times more powerful than the weapon it will replace. More political turmoil in Afghanistan. President Hamid Karzai now being accused of meddling in his country's election fraud investigation. The camp for Karzai's top rival says the incumbent pulled strings to force an election investigator to resign. He was part of a panel looking in to fraud allegations in the country's August 20th vote. The probe has delayed official results. Karzai's camp rejects the accusation. The Afghan leader yesterday acknowledged irregularities, while insisting the overall vote was good and fair and worthy of praise. Meanwhile, in Washington, much of the focus regarding Afghanistan is on the military's request for 40,000 more troops. Our Pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence, looks at why that specific number of troops is needed.
[Chris Lawrence, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] One hundred thousand American and allied troops are already fighting in Afghanistan. To understand why it's believed General Stanley McChrystal wants 40,000 more, you need to look at a map the way military strategists see.
[Kimberly Kagan, Adviser To Gen. Stanley Mcchrystal:] What 40,000 does is fill in the gaps around Kandahar, around Khost in Helmand province. It does not, however, cover the entire country.
[Lawrence:] Kimberly Kagan is an adviser to McChrystal. She says it's the minimum number to root out the Taliban and identifying and protect potential Afghan partners. But the military's own counterinsurgency ratio dictates it takes well over half a million troops to secure Afghanistan's 33 million people. [on camera]: But General McChrystal is not applying this ratio to all of Afghanistan. He feels certain parts of the country are peaceful enough like the north or just not as important like the west that they don't need the same number of counterinsurgency fighters as these areas do.
[Kagan:] And that's what gets him from a figure of hundreds of thousands of troops down to a figure such as 40,000 or 60,000 troops.
[Lawrence:] Kagan says McChrystal would use those troops to turn the tide so the Taliban doesn't control every other town. She says 10,000 or even 20,000 troops just aren't enough.
[Kagan:] It's not as though we can simply plug half as many holes with half as many troops and somehow seize the initiative from the enemy. On the contrary, half as many troops will probably leave us pinned down as we are.
[Lawrence:] The problem is roughly 25 million Afghans live in thousands of small rural villages scattered all over an area the size of Texas. Up to 80 percent of the population could still be out of reach for coalition troops. [on camera]: So, when 30,000 American troops surged into Baghdad, that's where one out of every four Iraqis lived. Even if you take the top 30 most populated areas of Afghanistan, you still only account for 20 percent of the population. That's how rural and spread out it is. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Washington.
[Harris:] Storm warnings along the West Coast. Chad's in the weather center tracking developments. We will speak with him in just a moment.