The arrival of the New Year signals the beginning of a new session of Congress, but we also face many on-going issues including the continued need to ensure that seniors can afford the high price of their medicines.

As millions of Medicare beneficiaries in Nevada and across the nation struggle to understand the burdensome prescription drug plan now being offered through Medicare, my Democratic colleagues and I continue to call for changes in this flawed program.

Among the most important of these proposals is one to provide Medicare with the authority to negotiate for lower drug prices on behalf of all those beneficiaries who enroll in prescription drug plan authorized through Medicare.

The GOP prescription drug bill I opposed was special-interest legislation that was designed solely to meet the interests of large drug companies and private insurers. One of the most outrageous special-interest provisions included in the GOP bill was one that explicitly prohibits Medicare from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices.

Congress must require Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices—as the VA does now—for beneficiaries in the Medicare-sponsored plan. Currently, the only entity in this country that cannot bargain for lower group drug prices is Medicare. The states, Fortune 500 companies, large pharmacy chains, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) use their bargaining clout to obtain lower drug prices for the patients they represent.

During debate over the 2003 prescription drug bill, Republicans claimed private insurers would be able to reduce drug prices more than the federal government. However, a November 2005 study by the Democratic staff of the Government Reform Committee shows that the Republicans were wrong.

The report examined the deep discounts that the Veterans' Administration has been able to obtain via negotiation with drug companies and highlights the importance of giving Medicare the authority to negotiate for lower drug prices. The study looked at the prices for the ten highest selling drugs used by Medicare beneficiaries. It found that the drug prices offered by ten leading new private drug plans under the Medicare drug program are more than 80 percent higher than the prices negotiated by the VA.

This year I hope Congress will finally stand-up for America's seniors and allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices by repealing the misguided prohibition against bargaining that is now in place.