With a Senate Finance Committee agreement on a health care overhaul plan unlikely before the Senate recesses Aug. 7, Democrats will leave town with next week's expected confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as their main July achievement.

Sotomayor will likely be confirmed in a vote late next week. Republicans and Democrats have yet to agree on how much floor time will be needed to debate her nomination. Senate Republicans, citing debate on past nominees to the top court, have urged four days of debate, but Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in acerbic comments several times this week, has said two days is enough.