(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), America’s largest taxpayer watchdog group, and its 21,500 members in Illinois were disappointed to learn that the Illinois House of Representatives was unable to muster enough votes to override the Governor’s amendatory veto of HB 2256.  An override would have enabled the citizens of Illinois to have quicker access to safe, effective but less expensive generic drugs.  “Special interest groups and brand-name drug companies with a vested interest won today’s battle, but they haven’t won the war,” said Tom Schatz, president of CCAGW.

“Illinois state representatives were placed under enormous political pressure, and were actually threatened with the prospect of losing important constituent projects if they voted to override the bill,” noted Schatz.  “While agreeing on the merits of the override, many felt they had to walk away from this important legislation.  This whole process represents politics at its worst.  The real losers in this political gamesmanship are Illinois citizens, who will continue to pay more for pharmaceuticals than most Americans do.  Hardest hit will be low-income families and senior citizens, who often pay out-of-pocket for their drugs.  They should take note of which legislators were for and against them.”

Jon Zahm, Illinois state chairperson of the Taxpayers Action Network (TAN), CCAGW’s grassroots arm, promised to carry on the battle next year.  “TAN is committed to obtaining access to affordable medicines for all citizens in Illinois.  Nobody should have to wait longer to get a generic drug because some archaic state bureaucratic entity, the Technical Advisory Council, wants to conduct a second unnecessary approval process for generic drugs.  When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a generic drug for substitution, why must the citizens in Illinois be saddled with another bureaucratic hurdle, which costs taxpayers and consumers tens of millions of dollars?”

“TAN will work diligently with other citizen groups to ensure that drug approval policies in Illinois are based upon sound science, not the desire of some brand-name drug companies to protect market shares at the expense of patients and consumers,” declared Zahm.

CCAGW is the grassroots and lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a 600,000-member nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.