House Votes to Provide $4.5 Billion for AIDS : Legislation: It is the first federal effort to provide significant amounts of money for clinical services such as testing and drug therapy.

The House overwhelmingly approved sweeping AIDS legislation Wednesday that would authorize $4.5 billion over five years in disaster relief for cities hardest hit by the fatal disease and for early treatment of those infected with the virus that causes it.

The measure, adopted 408 to 14, represents the first attempt by the federal government to provide significant amounts of money for AIDS-related clinical services such as testing, counseling and drug therapy.

In contrast, most of the $1.7 billion the Bush Administration is seeking for AIDS spending in the next fiscal year would be set aside for research and education. The House bill would provide funding over and above the Administration request.

The bill also represents the first major federal effort to support services for patients who are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus but who have not yet developed full-blown AIDS.

Before the final vote, the House turned aside an attempt by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) to force states to require doctors to report to public health authorities the identities of those infected with the HIV virus.

Instead, the House voted 312-to-113 to add language leaving that decision up to the states. Only a handful of states currently require such reporting, while all require reporting the names of those who have developed full-blown AIDS.

Despite the loss, Dannemeyer voted for the final version of the bill, saying it was needed to combat the AIDS epidemic. He was joined by Orange County’s four other congressmen: Reps. C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita), Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad).The only member of the California delegation to vote against the measure was Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado.)

“I thought I’d do a little better,” Dannemeyer said of his attempt to pass the reporting amendment. However, he noted that the final version of the bill included three Dannemeyer amendments adopted earlier in committee. One provision would withhold federal funds from states that do not enact laws making the knowing transmission of HIV a criminal offense. The others encourage states to expand HIV testing in hospitals and state prisons.

Before the bill was enacted, its author, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) cautioned lawmakers: “This bill is only a big first step, it’s not an answer.”

Despite the warning, reaction from gay rights activists was enthusiastic.

“Hallelujah!” said Thomas B. Stoddard, executive director of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the largest gay rights organization in the United States. “After 10 years, the federal government has at last recognized that AIDS is a health care crisis.”

The Senate last month approved by a 95-to-4 vote a bill authored by Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) that authorizes spending $2.9 billion over five years, largely for AIDS emergency relief grants.

The Waxman bill would go farther, including at least $275 million a year for relief grants, but also authorizing up to $400 million a year for grants to states and local agencies to support a wide range of clinical services for AIDS patients and those infected with HIV.

In addition, the Waxman bill authorizes $30 million a year in spending for drugs to forestall the onset of AIDS among patients who are too poor to afford them, and $50 million a year for demonstration programs for the treatment of children with AIDS.

The Administration had opposed both the Kennedy and Waxman AIDS measures. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis H. Sullivan has said the Administration does not want to earmark federal funds for specific diseases.

Dannemeyer has blamed the reluctance of states to adopt mandatory reporting on political pressure exerted by homosexual activists.