Senate rejects drug compromise

WASHINGTON - The Senate Wednesday rejected a proposed Democratic compromise aimed at adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, virtually assuring another stalemate on the issue despite its potency with voters in an election year.

Voting 49-50, the Democratic-controlled Senate fell 11 votes short of the 60 needed under its budget rules to pass the proposal, a scaled-back version of a more comprehensive Democratic bill that the Senate defeated last week.

In all, the Senate has turned down four plans during the past week, including two backed mostly by Republicans as well as the two drafted by Democrats. After rejection of the fourth and final proposal, the Senate approved 78 to 21 two less controversial initiatives as its only likely legislation on drug costs this year: one to encourage development of low-cost generic drugs and other to allow reimportation of American-made drugs from Canada where their prices are cheaper because of price controls.

Five-year struggle

Failure to reach agreement after five years of effort underscored the deep philosophic as well as political differences between the two parties on the issue and the difficulty of trying to create an expensive new benefit program at a time when budget surpluses have disappeared and deficits have come roaring back on Capitol Hill.

The House earlier this summer passed a Republican-drafted prescription drug bill, but chances of resurrecting the Senate plan or reaching some accommodation with the House is seen as unlikely. More likely, many senators said, it will again be an issue in the congressional elections.

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who drafted the compromise plan with the help of Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said they had hoped to attract more votes than they did, although they acknowledged in advance that they were likely to fall short of the 60-vote mark. As it turned out, they failed even to get a simple majority, picking up four Republican votes but losing five Democrats.

The Bush administration, which has consistently urged Congress to enact drug coverage this year, came out Tuesday against the compromise voted on Wednesday.