WILLIAMS OPPOSES SANTORUM’S ATTEMPT TO BUCK PACE BILL

HARRISBURG, July 9, 2003 - - Senator Connie Williams (D-Montgomery/Delaware) yesterday voiced her opposition against U.S. Senator Rick Santorum’s recent attempt to stall legislation in the Senate that would extend PACE and PACENET benefits to 100,000 additional seniors.

“As members of Congress work to arrive at a compromise on Medicare, Senator Santorum has managed to find a way to exempt Pennsylvania,” Williams said. “I think it’s stunning that he will deny 100,000 additional seniors the prescription drug benefits that the United States Congress believes they should receive.”

Santorum met with Republican members of the Pennsylvania Senate last week in an effort to drum up support for his belief that direct payments from the federal government should not support state programs.

“Senator Santorum convinced them to stall the expansion of PACE,” Williams said.

“There was bipartisan support for the PACE bill just a few weeks ago. Senate Republicans agreed with us that this bill would bring relief to so many seniors who need prescription drugs,” Williams said. “That support disappeared when Senator Santorum got involved.”

Santorum supports federal legislation that would offer senior citizens limited prescription coverage only through private insurers, not through state-sponsored programs like PACE. He opposes a measure that would allow states to use federal money to supplement their existing prescription programs, and has vowed that he will do everything he can to ensure the provision is not in the final bill.

“Senator Santorum’s opposition of the PACE and PACENET bill stands in sharp contrast to what many of the Commonwealth’s State Senators and their constituents have been fighting for for so many years,” Williams said. “I’m worried that our state’s seniors will end up being tossed into a murky abyss of confusion and costs, when all they want to do is get their prescriptions filled.”