WASHINGTON – A budget resolution conference report passed by the Senate on Thursday contains a reserve fund, written by Sen. Olympia Snowe and Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, D-Iowa, providing up to $300 billion in funding for a new prescription drug benefit. Grassley and Snowe – both of whom also serve on the Senate Budget Committee – offered the amendment during Senate consideration of the budget last month. Their amendment passed by a vote of 51-50, with Vice President Cheney presiding.

“As seniors in Maine and throughout America are reeling under the cost of their prescription medications, the lack of a prescription drug coverage benefit for Medicare beneficiaries is a black hole in the system,” said Snowe, who also chairs the Finance Subcommittee on Health Care. “I believe that our amendment will serve as the critical first step in making a new prescription drug benefit a reality.”

The Grassley-Snowe amendment increased by $147 billion the reserve fund in the resolution that makes room for a prescription drug benefit and Medicare reform, granting budget authority for up to $300 billion over the 10-year budget for a plan to be developed by the Senate Finance Committee – as long as the legislation provides reforms to the Medicare program and improves access to prescription drugs.