Posted by Allison on July 01, 2003 at 13:26:21:
JDRF Washington Report
Vol. 6, No. 14
June 30, 2003
COLLINS AMENDMENT PASSES SENATE!!
Late Thursday night/early Friday morning, the Senate completed consideration of its Medicare Prescription Drug legislation. Senator Collins’ amendment creating a five-year Medicare demonstration project to test payment for islet transplants for people with juvenile diabetes and kidney failure was included in the final package of amendments passed by the Senate. The package was passed by Unanimous Consent, meaning that no Senator objected. This amendment is a key component of “The Pancreatic Islet Cell Transplantation Act of 2003”.
All of your calls, coupled with the calls made last Wednesday morning by our Children’s Congress delegates, helped to ensure passage of the Collins amendment. Good work!!
The House has also completed consideration of its Medicare Prescription Drug legislation, and Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Vito Fossella (R-NY) included the Medicare demonstration amendment in the Energy & Commerce Committee’s version of the bill.
Our next challenge is to ensure that when the House and Senate meet to work out the differences in their bills, the amendment is preserved in the final package that is passed by Congress and sent to the President to be signed into law. We will be in touch with you at the appropriate time to seek your assistance in this effort.
Thank you for all of your calls and efforts, it really does make a difference!