[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 119 (Friday, July 21, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S10486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  RYAN WHITE CARE REAUTHORIZATION ACT

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.


                         privilege of the floor

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Seth Kilbourn, 
a congressional fellow, be granted privilege of the floor during the 
debate of the Ryan White CARE Act.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HELMS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, what is the pending business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The pending business is the consideration of 
S. 641.
  Mr. HELMS. That is the so-called Ryan White bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I shall not speak long, because there is 
not much time allocated this afternoon to this measure. I am sure that 
the distinguished majority leader was looking for something to take up 
for 2 or 3 hours, and I am not going to keep you here very long on this 
Friday afternoon.
  However, I have been listening in my office to the comments of 
Senators who advocate this legislation. I respect them, but I disagree 
with them. At a later time, I will go into some detail to explain to 
all Senators what they will be voting for; indeed, some 62 or 63 
Senators are identified as cosponsors of this so-called Ryan White 
bill. I have talked with 2 or 3 Senators at lunch, and at other times, 
about the details of the bill. They do not have the foggiest notion 
what the bill is all about. It just sounds good to be for the Ryan 
White bill.
  Let the Record show that I am sorry for people who have AIDS. 
However, I am not unmindful of how the majority of people get AIDS. I 
said so in an interview with a woman reporter for the New York Times 
who called me several weeks ago.
  What she really called me about, Mr. President, was clear at the 
time; she repeatedly brought up Senator Dole, the majority leader of 
the U.S. Senate and candidate for President. She was going to write one 
of those speculative stories, you see, suggesting that Senator Dole was 
holding up the so-called Ryan White bill.
  The fact is, nobody was holding up the Ryan White bill. Nobody is 
holding it up right now. I emphasized that, yes, I did put a ``notify'' 
hold in the Cloakroom on the Ryan White bill, meaning that I wanted to 
be notified when the bill was called up so that I could offer 
amendments to give Senators--including the 60-odd Senators who are 
cosponsors of the bill, without knowing what they are cosponsoring--
give them a chance to vote on a number of questions which are of 
interest to the vast majority of the American people.
  Since the distorted story was published about 80 percent of the 
thousands of calls and letters I received from around the country have 
been favorable.
  I told the lady from the New York Times that her speculation was 
preposterous, that Bob Dole was not holding up the Ryan White bill, 
that Jesse Helms was not holding up the Ryan White bill, that, in fact, 
nobody was holding it up.
  I asked, ``When has Senator Dole, the majority leader, had a time to 
call up this bill?'' And, by the way, I said, the existing bill does 
not expire until September 30, so what is the big rush?
  No, it is the homosexual lobby in this country. My hometown paper 
engaged in an editorial about the weak forces of the homosexual lobby. 
Well, Mr. President, the homosexual lobby is one of the most potent 
lobbying outfits in the country.
  They talk about little Ryan White--an attractive little boy, an 
innocent little boy. He died of AIDS, and now his name is being 
exploited, as if the homosexuals had nothing to do with the tainted 
blood that killed Ryan White. Where does the New York Times think that 
the tainted blood came from in the beginning? That is what Senators 
need to consider before they rush pell-mell into voting for this bill.
  There will be at least five or six amendments to consider and to vote 
on before the Senate gets to final passage on this amendment.
  What the homosexual lobbyists in this country are demanding are 
special advantages over everybody else. The Clinton administration is 
making a mockery of fair play in kowtowing to the homosexual demands at 
every turn, which prompts me to wonder, for example, how many 
Senators--or how many people in the news media, for that matter--know 
about the seminars being conducted these days throughout the Federal 
Government bureaucracy, seminars that are mandatory. Federal employees 
are penalized if they do not attend them. What are these seminars all 
about? They are designed to ``teach'' Federal employees that 
homosexuality is just another lifestyle.
  I have not seen a word about it in the New York Times or the 
Washington Post, nor have I seen it on CBS, ABC, CNN, or any of the 
rest of them. You see, it's not politically correct to talk about this.
  Federal employees do not have a choice about whether to attend these 
seminars. They go to them--or else. We had one case last year--and I 
had to intervene--where a dedicated Federal official stationed in 
Atlanta was booted out of his job because he made a statement saying 
that we ought to look for the higher things in life instead of 
concentrating on homosexuality, and teaching the false doctrine that 
homosexuality is just another lifestyle.
  This homosexual lobby has gone to incredible extremes to exploit Ryan 
White's name to acquire an unjustified amount of Federal funding for 
AIDS.
  By the way, Mr. President, there has never been another disease for 
which there has been a special Federal fund for one specifying money 
not devoted to AIDS research. This money is distributed with 
substantial amounts going to homosexual organizations such as the Gay 
Men's Health Crisis in New York, and the Whitman Walker Clinic, right 
here in Washington, DC.
  But just try, Mr. President, to obtain some information out of the 
Department of Health and Human Services. They stonewall. They do not 
want anybody to get the facts on how this AIDS money is distributed.
  But, later on, the Senate is going into all of this, and in great 
detail when consideration of this bill begins. There will be no home-
free basis. We are going to lay it out for everybody to see.
  And if Senators then want to vote for it, fine.
  That is all I am going to say today, Mr. President. But I want it to 
be made a matter of record that this is not a bill that the American 
people know anything about, nor is it one that many Senators know 
about. If the Lord gives me strength, the Senators at least will know 
about it before this reauthorization of the so-called Ryan White is 
approved by the Senate.
  I thank the Chair and I yield the floor.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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