Subject: President Clinton Signs Ryan White CARE Act
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 17:44:06 -0400

________________________________________________________

NEWS from the
Human Rights Campaign

1101 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
email:  [email-masked]
WWW:    http://www.hrcusa.org
________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 21, 1996

            PRESIDENT CLINTON SIGNS RYAN WHITE CARE ACT

     HRC Welcomes White House Action Renewing the Leading Federal
       Effort to Provide Medical Care for Men, Women and Children With
                                                  HIV and AIDS

     President Clinton yesterday signed a bill renewing the Ryan White
Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act for five
more years. The legislation authorizes the federal government's leading
effort to provide vital medical care to the hundreds of thousands of
Americans with HIV and AIDS.

     "The Ryan White CARE Act has been a big part of America's progress" on
AIDS, said the president. "But even as we celebrate
our progress, we shouldn't forget that the fight is not over. We
have to do more to stop the rising tide of infection among women,
communities of color and young people -- especially young gay men.
Until there is a cure, we cannot and must not rest."

     "The president yesterday followed through on his commitment to
America's men, women and children with AIDS," said Winnie
Stachelberg, HRC's senior health policy advocate. "This money is
desperately needed as health-care providers have been struggling to
manage ever-increasing caseloads at last year's funding levels."

     The long-overdue measure provides $738 million in fiscal year
1996 for the care and treatment of people with HIV and AIDS -- an
increase of more than 16 percent over last year. The bill also
provides $52 million specifically designated for new AIDS drugs.

     The Ryan White CARE Act originally passed in 1990. It expired
on September 30, 1995. After a House-Senate conference committee
hammered out a final version of the renewal bill, it passed the
House on May 1 by a vote of 402-4. A day later, it passed the
Senate unanimously.

     The Human Rights Campaign played a key role in nullifying an
amendment to the bill, proposed by anti-gay Sen. Jesse Helms,
R-N.C., which would have excluded organizations that serve the gay
community from receiving federal funds under the law.
     
    "This was a vindictive, discriminatory measure, considering
that a large number of organizations providing care to people with
HIV and AIDS are based in the gay and lesbian community," said
Stachelberg, who also serves for HRC as co-chair of National
Organizations Responding to AIDS.
     
     The Helms amendment was replaced by language proposed by Sen.
Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., that prohibits the use of Ryan White money
to directly promote intravenous drug use or sexual activity, either
hetero- or homosexual.

     "We know that AIDS affects all Americans," said the president
at yesterday's signing ceremony. "Every person with HIV or AIDS is
someone's son or daughter, brother or sister, parent or
grandparent. We cannot allow discrimination of any kind to blind us
to what we must do."

     Last year, as part of the drive to bolster congressional
support for AIDS funding, HRC commissioned an unprecedented
bipartisan poll demonstrating that voters of all political stripes
favor maintaining or increasing federal efforts to care for men,
women and children with AIDS.

     HRC vigorously opposed a provision of the bill that directs
states to institute mandatory HIV testing of newborns if states
cannot demonstrate by the year 2000 that they have significantly
reduced mother-to-child HIV transmission. However, that provision
is mitigated somewhat by a provision of the bill promoting
voluntary HIV counseling and testing for pregnant women as part of
their prenatal care.

     "Mandatory testing is the wrong response to the problem, and
we will continue to fight against it," Stachelberg said. "Instead
of attracting women and children to seek health care, mandatory
testing drives women and children away."

     The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian and
gay political organization, with members throughout the country. It
effectively lobbies Congress, provides campaign support and
educates the public to ensure that lesbian and gay Americans can be
open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.

                                           - 30 -