Washington, DC  -  U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers made the following comments today on AARP’s recent endorsement of the bi-partisan Medicare prescription drug legislation being debated in Congress this week:

“Alabama seniors have waited long enough for Congress to pass a prescription drug benefit under Medicare. For the first time since the 1960s, we have a chance to strengthen Medicare with a drug benefit, while providing seniors new and better health care options.

“AARP’s endorsement is like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for Alabama’s seniors. The plan does not do everything I would have liked for it to do, but it does go to historic lengths to strengthen Medicare for future generations while providing seniors more and better options now. It also provides historic increases in rural health care funding, so doctors and seniors in rural areas will no longer be unfairly penalized because of where they live.

“I call upon my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join AARP in support of this bi-partisan bill and pass it without further delay.”