President Obama tonight praised the Finance Committee for voting out health care legislation, but signaled that a new fight is just beginning.

"This bill is not perfect, and we have a lot of difficult work ahead of us," he said in a brief Rose Garden statement. "There's still significant details and disagreements to be worked out over the next several weeks as the five separate bills from the Senate and the House are merged into one proposal."

Still, the Finance Committee's vote represents a "critical milestone" in his reform effort. He portrayed the Finance bill as a bipartisan one that includes Republican ideas, even though just one Republican voted for it. That Republican, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, again drew special praise from the president.

"I want to particularly thank Senator Olympia Snowe for both the political courage and the seriousness of purpose that she's demonstrated throughout this process," he said.

For the celebrations in some corners today, Obama cautioned that now is "not the time to pat ourselves on the back," but instead "to dig in and work even harder to get this done."

"In this final phase, I hope that we will continue to engage each other with the spirit of civility and seriousness that has brought us this far and this subject deserves," he said.