Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, August 9, 1991 Page: 3 of 36
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I
State budget proposals hold line on AIDS; $12 million
in federal CARE Act funds forTexas are not threatened
By Tammye Nash
With a sweep of the knife, Dallas
city manager Jan Hart on Monday
proposed a 1992 budget which
completely carves out the $500,000 in
municipal funds currendy spent for AIDS
services each year.
If the budget is approved, it could
cause further strain on the city’s already
LOCAL
over-burdened AIDS service agencies,
according to Warren W. Buckingham III,
executive director of the AIDS ARMS
Network.
“If the city approves a budget
cutting out the funds they had
previously allocated to AIDS agencies, it
will not have a direct affect on AIDS
ARMS, because we did not receive any
funds from the city in the first place,”
Buckingham said. “But it will affect us
indirectly. Those agencies that had been
receiving city funds would probably turn
to us for help in making up the
difference.”
In addition to allocating funds for a
dental health program for persons with
AIDS, to the Visiting Nurses Association
and to Open Arms-Bryan’s House, a
facility for women and children with
AIDS, the city has previously funded one
Dallas County Health Department
position for an outreach AIDS educator,
who worked primarily in the minority
communities, Buckingham said.
Buckingham said he hopes the
proposed elimination of city funds for
AIDS service organizations is not a result
of the county receiving $1.3 million in
federal funds through the Ryan White
CARE Bill. But he noted that a provision
in the CARE Act which withholds CARE
funds from areas which make local AIDS
funding cutbacks does not apply to the
City of Dallas budget. Federal grant
administrators make that assessment
based on the state and county budget,
he said.
“While there is not a direct link
between the city’s AIDS budget and
Ryan White CARE funds,” Buckingham
noted, “any reduction of effort by local
government — whether it’s city, county
or state — it won’t help our cause next
time we go to the federal government
and ask for funds. They’ll just turn
It won't help our cause
the next time we go to
the federal government
and ask for funds.
They'll just say, 'What
. are you doing to help
yourselves?'_
around and say, ‘Well, what are you
doing to help yourselves?’
‘We do need funds from the city in
the fight against AIDS, just as we need
an expanded commitment from the
county and continued support from
private corporations and donations,”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
Food for PWAs
Volunteers deliver more than 650 pounds of canned goods and supplies to the
AIDS Resource Center Food Pantry. The food was purchased from funds were
raised at the Mr. Deaf International Leather contest held last month in conjunction
with the joint conference of the Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf and the International
Deaf Lesbian and Gay organization.
Helms
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Postal Appropriations bill, was approved
by the Senate on July 18 on an 81-18
vote.
The other proposal, now on the
Senate's Commerce, Justice and State
money bill, orders states to have laws on
the books protecting health care workers
on the job by allowing the HIV testing of
patients — although the measure does
not address whether such testing should
be undertaken without patients' consent.
The Senate approved the measure on a
voice vote on July 30 after a move to set
it aside was turned down, 44-55.
If the second proposal does
evetually become law, activists note that
its impact would be blunted by last
year's enactment of the Americans with
Disabilities Act, which makes it illegal
for physicians to refuse treatment to
people with AIDS and HIV. Still, they
see the Helms proposal as a major
threat.
The two measures will now move to
joint House/Senate conference
committees, which AIDS lobbyists hope
will act to delete the two measures. But
before they get there, the two bills will
have to pass procedural hurdles in the
House which could strengthen their
chances for final passage.
Even if the amendments are deleted
in conference, though, there is then the
near-certainly that Helms will try again
to impose his will on the Senate by
attaching these or similar proposals to
other unrelated measures.
When Congress re-convenes in
September after its five-week vacation,
the Senate must consider the Labor,
Health and Human Services
appropriations measure, which
historically has been the vehicle for most
of Helms' AIDS-related proposals. The
final debate on this bill may eventually
be the last chapter on the matter — for
this year at least.
But the fight against the two Helms
amendments will neither be short nor
easy, activists note.
AIDS lobbyists had operated all
summer under the impression that
Helms, their longtime foe, was preparing
to introduce amendments relating to HIV
and health care workers on some
measure. At first, they just weren't sure
when he would strike.
Then they got the tip-off that Helms
would introduce the health care worker
amendment in mid-July when he was
defeated in an attempt to place the
proposal on the crime bill that was then
moving through the Senate. Helms, they
knew, would try again in a week. His
choice of the Treasury bill as a vehicle
was the only surprise.
Two weeks later, though, the North
Carolina Republican's timing with his
patient testing rider readily startled
Capitol Hill AIDS observers. Helms
struck while AIDS lobbyists and some
supportive legislators were attending an
evening memorial service for a Hill
staffer who had recently died of AIDS.
During the service, someone poked their
head in the door and announced that
Helms was at that moment on his way to
the Senate floor to introduce the second
proposal, this time as an amendment to
the Commerce bill.
Luckily, remarked one national AIDS
activists, some Senators were at the
memorial service and, with the specter
of AIDS fresh in their minds, they were
able to summon up more anti-Helms
votes than they had on the previous
amendment.
"If they hadn't just left the sendee,"
commented Robert Bray of the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "we might
not have gotten the 44 votes we did."
Congress returns from its summer
recess on Sept. 11. ▼
DALLAS VOICE
AUGUST 9, 1991
3
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 8, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, August 9, 1991, newspaper, August 9, 1991; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth615937/m1/3/: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.