Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005170262
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The vote was 95-4. The Senate accepted amendments designed to improve inspection of the nation's blood supply system and prevent local governments from using their share of the federal money to distribute needles to drug abusers.
"This is a landmark piece of legislation," said conservative Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who joined with liberal Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., in pushing for the bill.
"We are working in the best interest of our nation by fighting AIDS and not people with AIDS," Kennedy said.
The bill was approved after three days of debate and a long series of amendments. It was vigorously opposed by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who charged that money was being diverted from other diseases and that the bill would encourage homosexual practices, which he termed immoral.
The measure now goes to the House, where a similar version was approved Tuesday on a voice vote by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and awaits floor action. The House version contains some different provisions and would spend $885 million a year.
The Senate's bill would provide $600 million a year in the 1991 and 1992 fiscal years to cities and states to deal with AIDS patients overburdening many public hospitals. Half of the money would go to 13 big cities that have reported 2,000 or more cases of AIDS.
It would authorize spending "such sums as may be necessary" for three more years, through fiscal 1995. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would increase federal outlays by $2.9 billion over five years.
The Senate approved on a voice vote an amendment offered by Kennedy to hire 150 new Food and Drug Administration inspectors as a step to ensure the blood supply used by hospitals is free of the AIDS virus.
The Senate rejected 52-47 a Helms amendment that would have made it a federal crime to knowingly donate blood tainted by the AIDS virus, or for intravenous drug users or prostitutes to give blood.
It accepted a milder version, requiring that states have laws "adequate to prosecute" anyone who knowingly and intentionally tries to donate tainted blood or organs.
The National Commission on AIDS, whose members are appointed by Congress and the president, said in a statement that it "endorses the principles and objectives" of the Senate's bill.
Cities due to receive money under the bill are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, N.J., Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C.
Those areas have reported more than half of the nation's AIDS cases, according to sponsors.
The other half of the bill's money would go to states to care for AIDS patients and to provide community-based services and support programs.
Voting against the bill were Helms; Gordon Humphrey, R-N.H.; William Roth, R-Del., and Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo. Not voting was Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa.
by CNB