Oregon's Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who is playing an increasingly large role in his party's fundraising aparatus, is now trying to assert himself on Medicare's new prescription drug plan. The AP's Matthew Daly reports.

An Oregon senator says he has enough votes in the Senate to pass an amendment allowing the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, a change opposed by President Bush and other Republicans as well as the drug industry.

"We're looking for the right vehicle to get this important provision into law and get some cost containment into the Medicare benefit," Sen. Ron Wyden said at a news conference.

Wyden's comment came as a new study showed that people who get their drug benefits through the Veterans Affairs Department paid about $220 less for a yearlong prescription than those who used the government's Medicare drug card.

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Wyden has worked with Sen. Olympia Snowe (news, bio, voting record), R-Maine, to push for government bargaining power for prescription drugs. An amendment they co-sponsored failed by two votes during Senate budget deliberations in March.

Wyden declined to identify the two senators who have changed their minds, but he repeated several times that he and Snowe had the votes needed to approve the amendment.

President Bush is overwhelmingly against the Wyden plan, which would significantly lower prescription drug costs for senior citizens. If the Democrats want to make President Bush have to start vetoing some bills, this might be a good start.