WASHINGTON – Maine took center stage Thursday with the Senate voting 56-43 to support programs similar to the state’s controversial Rx program.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., is one of many amendments to larger legislation aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs, which is now being debated by senators.

If passed into law, Stabenow’s amendment would allow states to use their Medicaid programs as bargaining chips when negotiating lower prices with drug firms. The legislation also would permit states to extend Medicaid rebates and discounts for prescription drugs to people who are ineligible for Medicaid benefits.

“Our states are struggling to help their citizens,” Stabenow said. “The drug companies are trying to stop these kinds of innovations.”

Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted in favor of the amendment.

Approved more than two years ago by the state Legislature, Maine Rx has been stalled repeatedly by legal challenges from the nation’s major pharmaceutical firms and is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Stabenow’s legislation won’t affect the current court dispute, but it could send a signal to drug manufacturers to back away from pursuing their lawsuit, she said.

Democrats are particularly keen on the Michigan senator’s amendment, not only because it offers a tool to hammer down prices on prescription drugs, but because Maine Rx originally was sponsored in the Legislature by former Democratic state Senate leader Chellie Pingree, who is challenging Collins in the November election.

“Maine has been the showcase today,” said U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., accompanied by Stabenow and Pingree during a conference call for reporters Thursday afternoon. “But we could call it the Pingree showcase as well.”

Pingree, who has made her efforts to bring down drug prices in Maine a cornerstone of her campaign against Collins, said she supported the Senate move.

“If Maine Rx-style reform passes nationally, it will be a victory for every American who can’t afford to take the prescriptions their doctor prescribes,” she said.