Chuck Grassley: “I rise to speak about the new prescription drug bill, a bill that is going to benefit senior citizens starting June 1 of…”

“I rise to speak about the new prescription drug bill, a bill that is going to benefit senior citizens starting June 1 of this year on a temporary basis, and then in a permanent program to benefit senior citizens starting November 15, 2005. If somebody wonders why a temporary program, why a permanent program, when we passed the first changes in Medicare in 38 years, very dramatic changes, by adding prescription drugs to the Medicare bill, we asked the people in the Department of Health and Human Services administering this new law how long it would take to put this new expansion and modernization and strengthening of Medicare into operation. They said they needed about 18 months to 2 years, probably about 6 months longer than it took to get the original Medicare bill in place after its passage in 1965. We didn't want seniors to have to wait 18 months to 2 years to get some money from it, so there is a temporary program of the drug card that will save seniors 25 percent on drugs, and also the subsidy for low-income American seniors and disabled who are under $12,000-a-year income--a $600 subsidy for that. So we have a new prescription drug program. This was a relatively close vote on the floor of the Senate.”