Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
October 6, 2000, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A05
LENGTH: 447 words
HEADLINE:
WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
BODY:
House
Clears AIDS-HIV Bill
Congress has agreed to provide more than $
1 billion a year for AIDS prevention and treatment in a bill that for the first
time factors in HIV infection as well as AIDS cases in determining how federal
money will be distributed.
The legislation, which the House passed 411
to 0 yesterday and sent to the president, reauthorizes for five years the
Ryan White CARE Act, which expired when the new fiscal year
began Oct. 1.
The emphasis on AIDS patients rather than those infected
with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has been "devastating," said the bill's
sponsor, Rep. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).
A Hill Plea on Land Mines
One hundred members of Congress appealed to President Clinton to
bring the United States closer to signing a 1997 international treaty banning
land mines.
The treaty, concluded in Ottawa in December 1997, took
effect in March 1999 and has been signed by 139 states.
The United
States, Russia and China--the world's major land mine producers--have balked at
signing.
Washington argues mines are essential to defending the
demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
Russian
Nuclear Aid Cited
Russia is still helping Iran develop its
nuclear capability, despite U.S. efforts to curb the flow of critical weapons
technology and equipment to Tehran, a senior State Department official said.
While a number of other states, including China and Ukraine, have
abandoned sales to Iran's nuclear program, "Russia remains the one significant
exception," said Robert Einhorn, assistant secretary of state for
nonproliferation.
Washington fears that Russian aid on a reactor at an
Iranian power plant could give Tehran weapons technology.
Duel
on Assisted Suicide
Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.) blocked
legislation to aid rural counties in an effort to win passage of legislation
restricting physician-assisted suicides.
The Oklahoma Republican hopes
that by blocking Sen. Ron Wyden's bill, he can persuade the Oregon Democrat to
drop a threatened filibuster of Nickles's suicide bill. It was the second time
Nickles has held the county aid bill hostage in a long-running struggle with
Wyden on the suicide issue.
GAO Assesses Defense Plans
The Defense Department's long-range budget is insufficient to
fund its readiness, operations, maintenance and weapons purchase plans, the
General Accounting Office concluded.
The result will be that the
Pentagon will continue a practice it established in the 1990s--using funds
intended for weapons purchases to pay for overseas deployments, health care and
the repair and replacement of base housing, a GAO report said.
LOAD-DATE: October 06, 2000
