Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2007

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2007

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and I have no intention of objecting, I want to clarify what the distinguished chairman and ranking member said--and they have been very helpful. My understanding is that we go to the Conrad amendment after that, the avian flu amendment. It is my understanding per the agreement between the chairman and ranking minority member that after the Conrad amendment has been discussed, we would next go to the Snowe-Wyden amendment.

Is that the understanding of the chairman and the ranking minority member?

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AMENDMENT NO. 3004

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, with the consent of both sides, I call up amendment No. 3004, the Snowe-Wyden amendment.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the clerk will report.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Oregon [Mr. WYDEN], for Ms. Snowe, for herself and Mr. Wyden, proposes an amendment numbered 3004.

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To ensure that any savings associated with legislation that authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use the collective purchasing power of 40,000,000 Medicare beneficiaries to negotiate the best possible prices for prescription drugs provided through part D of title XVIII of the Social Security Act in fallback plans, by private drug plans (if asked) and in other circumstances, but not permitting a uniform formulary or price setting, is reserved for deficit reduction or to improve the Medicare drug benefit)

At the end of title III, insert the following:

SEC. __XX. RESERVE FUND FOR THE NEGOTIATION OF THE BEST POSSIBLE PRICE FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUGS THROUGH MEDICARE PART D.

The Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may revise the aggregates, allocations, functional totals, and other appropriate levels and limits in this resolution upon enactment of legislation that allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use the collective purchasing power of 40,000,000 Medicare beneficiaries to negotiate the best possible prices for prescription drugs provided through part D of title XVIII of the Social Security Act in fallback plans and, if asked, by private drug plans, and in other circumstances, but not permitting price setting or a uniform formulary, by the amount of savings in that legislation, to ensure that those savings are reserved for deficit reduction or to improve the Medicare part D drug benefit.

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, we all have seen the frustrations and the heartache that senior citizens have experienced over these last few months as the prescription drug legislation has gone into effect. Certainly, some folks are being helped, and we are glad to see it. But in order to really make a prescription drug benefit work, we have to contain the costs of medicine. That is what Senator Snowe and I are trying to do. We are trying to do it by using marketplace forces, not Government but marketplace forces to hold down the cost of medicine.

A majority of the Senate is now on record as favoring this proposal. A majority of the Senate voted for it last fall before all the headaches and the frustrations that seniors have experienced. So in my view, the case is a lot stronger today than it even was last fall when a majority of the Senate voted for it.

I think that is the reason the American Association of Retired Persons has written to the Senate saying they are in support of the bipartisan Snowe-Wyden legislation. They have something they call their Rx Watchdog group. It is an effort by AARP--a very laudable effort--to monitor the cost of medicine. They report that the cost of medicine is going up twice the rate of inflation.

Of course, we know older people use more medicines than the rest of the population. It would be one thing if people were trying to go about doing this in an arbitrary kind of fashion, using a one-size-fits-all Government approach or price controls. That is not what the bipartisan Snowe-Wyden legislation does.

We want to be very clear, as we offer this legislation, that at line 13 and line 14 of this amendment, there is a statutory prohibition on price controls as an effort to hold down the cost of medicine.

Let me repeat that to the Senate. The bipartisan Snowe-Wyden legislation at line 13 and line 14 includes a bipartisan statutory ban on price setting as an effort to control the cost of medicine. This is about using marketplace forces to hold down the cost of these drugs that are clobbering our older people.

I don't see how anyone can oppose this amendment and, in fact, Secretary Tommy Thompson, the former Secretary of Health and Human Services, said in his last press conference that he just wished he had this authority. He wished he had the kind of authority that is in this amendment. It doesn't mean it is going to be used all the time, but it means it is a tool, an opportunity like we have every single day in the private sector of our economy to hold down the cost of medicine.

The way Medicare is going to go out and buy these prescription drugs reminds me of somebody going to COSTCO and buying one role of toilet paper at a time. Nobody would go shopping that way. Everybody who is in a position to do so exercises their marketplace clout, the opportunity to be a savvy shopper, the opportunity to say I am going to purchase a lot of something. I want to get my money's worth.

I just hope the Senate this time, when we have seen all the frustrations older people are having, uses this chance to do something about it.

We know lots of lobbyists are against this amendment. Last week we had a discussion on lobbying reform. I can tell colleagues in the Senate that probably the biggest trophy on a lobbyist's wall is to defeat the bipartisan Snowe-Wyden amendment, but that doesn't make it right. What we need to do is what is right for older people and at a time when millions of seniors are walking on an economic tightrope, balancing their food costs against their fuel costs, and their fuel costs against their medical bills, this is a chance to use marketplace forces to hold down the cost of medicine.

For older people, there are no costs going up like prescription drugs. Some are saying: We can get these cost savings without the Snowe-Wyden amendment. A lot of those people are the same ones who said that the rollout of the prescription drug program would go perfectly. We say that certainly has not been the case.

Now there is a chance to go home at this break and say you actually moved to do something important that older people are talking about at their kitchen table every single day, and that is the cost of medicine.

I don't know of any special interest group in this country that got the kind of sweetheart arrangement in this legislation that the pharmaceutical sector has. There is no other group in this country, no other group that got a specific carve-out so we couldn't use marketplace forces to hold down the cost of medicine. It is really staggering that one group was singled out to be immune from the forces of the marketplace.

Secretary Thompson thought it made no sense. It certainly makes no sense right now when older people are being clobbered by the cost of medicine and finding it hard to secure the benefits of this program. In fact, my sense is one of the reasons a lot of older people have been reluctant to sign up is they can't see any cost savings in the program.

Here is a chance to generate some real cost savings. That is why AARP indicated its support for the amendment. That is why Secretary Thompson said he wished he had the authority. That is why every timber company, steel company, and auto company in the country uses its marketplace clout to hold down the cost of medicine. Fifty-one Senators voted for it last fall before we saw all the older people have the problems they have had over the last couple of months.

I hope colleagues, on a bipartisan basis, will support this amendment. Senator Snowe and I have worked on this now for 3 years. We said we were going to work on it at the time the original legislation was voted on. AARP, like Senator Snowe, like myself, like Chairman Grassley, for whom I have enormous respect--we are all in support of the original legislation. I still have the welts on my back to show for my support for the legislation. But as AARP says, don't miss the opportunity to improve on this legislation which we can do by using marketplace forces.

I urge colleagues, particularly in light of some of what has been written, to take a look at line 13 and line 14 of the amendment which specifically prohibits the use of price controls under this amendment as a tool to hold down the cost of medicine.

Madam President, I reserve the remainder of my time.

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, Senator Snowe will close this afternoon for our bipartisan amendment, but I want to highlight a couple of points. There is a reason that AARP strongly supports the Snowe-Wyden amendment. There is a reason that Secretary Thompson, before he left the Health and Human Services Department, said he wanted this authority, and that is this is just plain common sense.

Everybody else in the marketplace who is in a position to use their clout does it but not Medicare.

I want to set the record straight on a couple of comments that were made by my friend, the chairman of the Finance
Committee. Again, at lines 13 and 14 of the bipartisan Snowe-Wyden amendment, in addition to the prohibition against price controls, there is a prohibition against a uniform formulary. So we are using all of the same forces in the marketplace of the private sector under this amendment that go on all across the land today. There are no price controls. There is no uniform formulary. For colleagues who want to see the language, it is at line 13 and line 14 of the Snowe-Wyden amendment.

Let us have some practical, smart shopping with respect to this program, where the costs are going into the stratosphere. I don't know of anybody in the United States who would shop the way Medicare is shopping today for prescription drugs. It would be one thing if it was working.

AARP supports this amendment because the cost of medicine is rising twice the rate of inflation. So if you want to say to the seniors when you go home next week that you took some practical steps to control the costs of medicine, you will support the Snowe-Wyden amendment. If you think everything is working fine right now--and we don't--then I guess you oppose us. But I hope colleagues will, as they did last November, a majority of them, support us because now they can make a difference. They can make a difference for older people. They can make a difference for taxpayers. I hope my colleagues, when Senator Snowe wraps up for our side this afternoon, will support this bipartisan amendment because it is just plain shopping smart at a crucial time when older people need that approach to hold down the cost of health care.

I yield the floor.

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