Frank Pallone: “I must say that I am pleased to see that the Republican leadership may bring a prescription drug bill to the floor this…”

“I must say that I am pleased to see that the Republican leadership may bring a prescription drug bill to the floor this week before the July 4 recess, but I am very disappointed with the legislation that they have brought forward; and I can only hope that when they bring the bill to the floor, they will allow a Democratic substitute, Medicare prescription drug bill, which is far superior and will be the only legislation I think that would accomplish the goal of making sure and guaranteeing all seniors have a decent prescription drug benefit. I would ask that the Republican leadership make sure that we be allowed as Democrats to bring up our substitute when this matter goes before the Committee on Rules this week. I want to talk about two areas that I think are important with regard to this prescription drug initiative. First of all, the Democrats insist that a prescription drug benefit be under Medicare. Medicare has been a very successful program that has worked in terms of providing hospital care and physician care over the last 30 or 40 years, and the only way that we are going to have an effective prescription drug plan is if we use the Medicare model and if we make sure that the prescription drug benefit is guaranteed under Medicare.”