In the first salvo of what promises to be a contentious political debate over the cost of prescription drugs, the Senate voted July 11 to let Americans import prescription drugs from Canada, seeking to ease a regulatory ban on cheaper medicine crossing the border.

The proposal, approved 68-32, would create a Canadian loophole on a Food and Drug Administration ban on importing prescription medicine. The proposal was offered as part of a $31.7 billion Homeland Security Department spending blueprint for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

All senators in the upper Midwest voted in favor of the proposal except Sen. Norm Coleman, who opposes lowering prescription drug costs through importation and an international marketplace.

Sen. David Vitter's (R-La.) plan, which was embraced by Democrats and many Republicans, would prohibit Customs and Border Protection from stopping people with doctors' prescriptions for FDA-approved drugs from bringing the medicine into this country from Canada. "This Senate action was a significant symbolic vote," said Howard Gochberg, co-chair of the MnSF Medicare Justice Coalition."It tells the administration and President Bush that the time has come to put needs of the American public for affordable prescription drugs ahead of the greed of international pharmaceutical companies."

Republican leaders opposed the plan fearing, they said, that drugs could be unsafe for consumers or present a terror risk. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H), said the proposal was an attempt to push the FDA into reversing itself while "creating a massive hole on our capacity to secure our borders and protect ourselves."

Aides warned that the drug import plan will likely to be stripped out of the legislation, as it has been in past years, as it goes through House and Senate conference committees. The administration opposes efforts to loosen restrictions.

The main act of the importation debate is likely to be played out in the next few weeks in the U.S. Senate as sponsors of the more comprehensive Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act. sponsored by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), with more than 30 co-sponsors including Sen. Mark Dayton, is taken up by the Senate as either a stand-alone bill or as an amendment to other legislation.

The Minnesota Senior Federation is leading the national charge to lower the cost of prescription drugs through the Dorgan-Snowe or similar legislation led in the House by Rep. Gil Gutknecht. Gochberg said that "the government must either negotiate drug pricing or clearly permit safe importation of prescription drugs by individuals, U.S. pharmacies and wholesalers if we are to prevent the bankruptcy of Medicare."

Snowe and Dorgan said the vote by the U.S. Senate to bar use of federal funds to enforce the ban on re-importing lower-priced prescription medicines from Canada underscores broad support for lifting the ban entirely.

Snowe and Dorgan, who have offered legislation to do just that, said they'll insist that the Senate vote on allowing prescription drug imports yet this year.

"With two-thirds of the Senate supporting this amendment, it is clear that the will is there to pass drug importation legislation to reduce the burden of skyrocketing drug costs on Americans across the country," said Snowe. "Despite years of legislative efforts, our constituents continue to wait for the federal government to act. This is a federal issue and the fact is we can import prescription drugs in a manner that protects their safety and security for the American people. The time has come for the Senate to act."

"The 68-32 vote on the question of whether Customs should be prohibited from enforcing the ban once again makes clear there is a big majority in the Senate are ready to vote to allow Americans access to lower-priced prescription medicines," Dorgan said. "Yet the Bush administration and the Senate majority leader continue to block such a proposal from coming to a vote on the Senate floor. That preserves the huge profits for drug companies that monopoly-price their products here, but does nothing to make prescription drugs more affordable for millions of Americans. The Senate must be allowed to vote on this."