Ron Wyden: “on this difficult evening, I wish to take just a few minutes to talk about the budget. Last Congress, Senator Snowe and…”

“on this difficult evening, I wish to take just a few minutes to talk about the budget. Last Congress, Senator Snowe and I, on a bipartisan basis, saw 51 Members of the Senate support our bipartisan legislation to lift the restriction on Medicare so that program could bargain to hold down the cost of medicine. That vote, where a majority of Senators went on record in supporting the effort to hold down the cost of medicine, took place before the program went into effect. It seems to me everything that has happened over the last few months, since a majority of the Senate voted for our bipartisan amendment, supports our case for passing that legislation now. We will be offering our bipartisan proposal, the Snowe-Wyden amendment, later this week, and I wish to take just a few minutes to outline why it is so important. The American Association of Retired Persons says it all in a letter endorsing our bipartisan Snowe-Wyden proposal. I ask unanimous consent that the AARP letter endorsing the Snowe-Wyden legislation be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: AARP, March 13, 2006. Hon. Ron Wyden, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Dear Senator Wyden: AARP supports your amendment to the Senate fiscal year 2007 budget bill to provide for the ability of the Secretary of Health and Human Services to participate in negotiations with pharmaceutical manufacturers under the Medicare prescription drug program.…”