Washington, D.C. - U.S. Representative Charles F. Bass (R-NH02) welcomed today's passage by the House of the Ryan White Care Act Amendments of 2000 (S. 2311). The widely-supported legislation passed by a vote of 411 to 0 and will authorize approximately $6.5 billion in AIDS prevention and treatment programs over the next five years. The Second District Republican was a cosponsor of the House version of the bill (H.R. 4807), which passed the House in late July.

The Ryan White CARE Act, originally enacted in 1990, created the programs that serve as the primary sources of federal AIDS prevention and treatment funding for the country. Their authorization was set to expire at the end of fiscal year 2000. The amendments passed today reauthorize and revise the grant formulas to shift the emphasis of the programs more toward earlier stages of AIDS and HIV infection; it includes a new formula, beginning in 2005, for distributing funds to states and cities based on the number of both AIDS and HIV cases, compared to the current formula, which allocates funds based solely on AIDS cases.

Also included in the measure:

• $20 million to reduce HIV transmission from mothers to their babies.
• Provisions actively addressing prevention of the disease.
• $30 million for tracking the disease and encouraging people to notify their partners.
• Provisions to require people receiving care through Ryan White programs to enroll in counseling programs.