Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), the new chairman of the HELP committee, is certain the Senate will pass a public option, he said today on CNN's The Ed Show.

"I thought he [the president] was very clear: We've got to have one," Harkin said. "And believe me, we're gonna have one."

He dismissed the belief that the Senate does not have enough votes to pass a health care reform bill if it includes a public option.

"We don't know that because we've never voted on it!" he said.

Harkin, who's taken over the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions after Sen. Ted Kennedy's death, said Congress would have a bill by Thanksgiving.

Vice President Biden also said today that the bill will be out before the November holiday.