Copyright 2000 The Seattle Times Company
The
Seattle Times
October 21, 2000, Saturday Second Edition
SECTION: ROP ZONE; News; Pg. A4; Capital Watch
LENGTH: 387 words
HEADLINE:
Airlines told: Speak up about lowest airfares
DATELINE:
Washington
BODY:
WASHINGTON--The Transportation
Department is reminding airlines they are required to be truthful when customers
ask for the lowest possible fare, even if the best price is available only
through the Internet.
The law prohibits airlines from deceiving
customers about prices.
In some cases, an airline may make the lowest
prices available only to customers buying directly via the Internet.
In
those cases, if a customer calls asking for the lowest price, the airline can
quote the best price available by phone but also must tell the customer a better
price may be available through the Internet, the department said.
Travel
agents are required only to quote the lowest fare they are authorized to sell,
as they are not responsible for knowing of fares sold directly by airlines via
Internet sites.
Legislation signed by Clinton authorizes
$1 billion for AIDS
President Clinton yesterday signed
legislation authorizing more than $1 billion a year for AIDS
prevention and treatment.
Clinton signed a bill reauthorizing for five
years the Ryan White Care Act, which expired when the new
fiscal year began Oct. 1. The original law was passed in 1990, the same year
that Ryan White, an 18-year-old Indiana hemophiliac, died.
For the first
time, the legislation factors in HIV infections and AIDS cases in determining
how federal money will be distributed. Supporters say that will mean more money
for programs that help infants, women, minorities and people in rural areas.
Congress works on agreement for foreign-aid spending bill
Bargainers seemed to be moving toward an agreement yesterday over
restricting U.S. aid to groups that perform overseas abortions, one of the most
intractable remaining budget disputes.
A deal would mean an end, for
now, to a battle that has raged since 1984, when President Reagan used an
executive order to bar family planning aid for groups that perform abortions
overseas or lobby to liberalize other countries' abortion laws. President
Clinton revoked the order upon taking office in 1993.
An agreement also
would mean that a $14.9 billion foreign-aid measure, one of the
three spending bills for the new fiscal year that White House and congressional
negotiators have yet to resolve, could be ready for Congress to vote on early
next week.
LOAD-DATE: December 4, 2000
