[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7055]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     PRESCRIPTION DRUGS FOR SENIORS

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, too many seniors and disabled people in this 
country cannot afford the prescription drugs their doctors say they 
need.
  Seniors should never have to choose between food and medicine. This 
is an important issue that needs a meaningful solution, not the empty 
rhetoric that we are hearing from the other side.
  House Republicans are proposing a plan to offer a fair and 
responsible drug plan that is affordable, available and voluntary to 
all seniors and disabled Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, it will help folks to get prescription drug coverage at 
lower costs by creating group buying power without Washington 
interference or big government-style price controls.
  We will reduce the runaway costs of medicine, but not with a 
Washington-based one-size-fits-all program that kills research and 
innovation of live-saving cures.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to modernize prescription drug coverage. We 
should all be working together on this important issue. Let us stop the 
partisan rhetoric and do the right thing for our seniors.

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