COLUMBIA - Reduced-price prescriptions for seniors came closer to passage Wednesday, but the measure still has hurdles that could keep it from becoming reality this year.

The state Senate passed, without discussion, a bill setting up a bulk-buying program for people older than 65. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Dick Elliott, D-North Myrtle Beach.

The identical House bill, sponsored by Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Myrtle Beach, was stalled Tuesday in the Senate after one member objected to it, then another said he wanted to add provisions.

That meant the House would have to accept the Senate bill by a two-thirds majority, because it came in after the May 1 deadline.

Clemmons persuaded the House to accept the bill without a vote and put it on the agenda without sending it to a subcommittee.

But the bill, which still has opponents, could be attacked or delayed when it comes up for a vote again today, Clemmons said.

"I'm hopeful," he said. "It's movement, but it's not over."

Elliott put a provision in the state budget that sets up the program under temporary law, but it would expire in a year. Also, that provision could fall during negotiations with the House to resolve the budget.

A group of Republican women from Little River was visiting the Capitol on Wednesday while the vote was taken in the Senate on the drug program.

"That's great," said Georgia Ellis, sister of former Sen. Ralph Ellis.

She said she doesn't need the program, but "I know a lot of people who will benefit from it."