Senate Votes to Extend AIDS Care Legislation

WASHINGTON — Over strenuous objections from a conservative Republican, the Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a five-year extension of the Ryan White Act, which provides medical care and support services for AIDS patients and their families.

The 97-3 vote came after two days of debate peppered with harsh criticism of homosexuals by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who referred to AIDS-prevention programs as “thinly veiled attempts to restructure values of American families in favor of the homosexual lifestyle.”

The act, first approved in 1990, was named for a hemophiliac teen-ager from Indiana who died after contracting AIDS from a blood transfusion. His death served to rally public opinion behind a more aggressive response to the AIDS epidemic.

This past year alone, the act provided $633 million to pay for outpatient medical care and support services for individuals diagnosed with AIDS or infected with the virus that causes it.

As approved, the Senate measure does not stipulate new funding levels. That will be done in annual appropriations bills over the next five years. Although the House has yet to take final action on its version of the measure, the House Appropriations Committee recently recommended $658 million in spending for fiscal 1996; President Clinton had sought $723 million.

As a result of a change in the formula for distributing the funds, Los Angeles could get a $500,000 increase to $13.4 million next year, even if overall funding were to remain constant.

Passage of the act’s extension came after Helms delayed the legislation from reaching the floor for weeks. He complained that funding for AIDS research and treatment is the result of pressure on Congress from homosexuals, whom he specifically blamed for spreading the disease.

“AIDS is a chronic disease of sexually promiscuous people,” Helms said during a floor speech Tuesday. “ ‘Gay ‘used to be a beautiful word, but it’s been corrupted.”

Helms failed in his effort to attach an amendment that would have frozen funding at current levels until the year 2000. He did, however, succeed in adding several others. He won approval by a 54-45 vote for an amendment that prohibits the use of Ryan White Act funds to directly or indirectly promote or encourage homosexuality or the use of intravenous drugs.

Helms also obtained unanimous approval of a provision that would make attendance optional at workplace AIDS-prevention programs that Clinton has ordered for government offices, and another that would require health care officials to notify spouses of individuals diagnosed with AIDS.

Helms’ sharp attacks on homosexuals during the debate were countered by strong advocates of the act, who praised it for helping hundreds of thousands of people.

“AIDS is not a ‘them’ disease--it’s an ‘us’ disease,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).