House Approves Research Bill With an AIDS-Immigrant Ban

The House gave its final approval Tuesday to a medical research bill that bans AIDS-infected immigrants, allows for fetal tissue research and directs new research money for women’s health issues, including breast and ovarian cancer, contraception and fertility, and osteoporosis.

By a 290-130 vote, the House passed the $6-billion bill for the National Institutes of Heath and returned it to the Senate.

In the end, even some lawmakers who objected to the AIDS ban voted for the bill, saying women’s health research that had been neglected for years is too important.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), a key sponsor of the bill, said the AIDS ban was discriminatory, but he had decided it was a losing battle in Congress.

“If this bill were killed over the immigration amendments, they would spring up on the next Senate bill,” Waxman said.

The White House, which objects to keeping immigrants out just because they are HIV-positive, accepted defeat on the matter earlier this year when both chambers first acted on the AIDS ban.

President Clinton, who had promised during the campaign to lift the government’s ban on infected immigrants, is expected to sign the measure. The Senate could send it to him later this week.

The House “no” votes came from lawmakers opposed to the AIDS-immigrants ban and from anti-abortion lawmakers who object to the provision that would permanently lift the government’s former ban on fetal tissue research.

The fetal tissue provision codifies action Clinton took by executive order in January, when he was trying to reverse 12 years of Republican policies.

Congress passed a similar bill last year only to see it vetoed by President George Bush over the fetal tissue research provision.

This year’s version got sidetracked in the Senate in February, when lawmakers upset with Clinton’s plans to reverse the immigration ban tacked it onto the measure.

The House overwhelmingly followed suit, voting to accept the Senate language when the bill went to a conference committee. Tuesday’s vote was on the negotiated version of the bill. The AIDS ban was the only big difference.