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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1990)
Negotiating the Congressional labyrinth Advocates intervene in each stage of the process and use procedure to their advantage whenever they can BY LAURA MARKOWITZ CHAI FELDBLUM .' providing that no money could be used for the distribution of clean needles or bleach to IV drug users. This was attached to a Senate olitics, process and procedure always provision that allowed Medicaid funding for come together in strange ways during in the case of pregnancies resulting Congressional action, but never more so than abortions from rape or incest in the appropriations process, in which This Senate abortion provision was the millions of AIDS dollars are at stake. single item on which the House-Senate Every program authorized by Congress, conference reached no compromise, and so including AIDS programs, gets money the provision went back to each House of through appropriations bills. Congress is not Congress for a vote. Unfortunately, the supposed to use appropriations bills to restrictive needles and bleach amendment legislate policy, but members from both ends went with it of the spectrum, including right-wing There was no way, procedurally, to conservatives, have traditionally used separate the two provisions. Civil rights appropriations bills to advance their policy groups wanted to support the important pro- views on AIDS. choice provision, but the vote had to be at the The appropriations process began last expense of passing the needles and bleach April and came to its final conclusion in restriction as well. Procedure had created an November, in the waning days of the first unfortunate dilemma. session of the 101st Congress. Advocates The House of Representatives passed the intervened in each stage of the process to try provision with a margin of 16 votes, giving to keep out anti-gay amendments and to make pro-choice advocates their first abortion vote sure AIDS programs got the money they victory in years. The Senate passed the needed; they also used procedure to their provision as well, and the bill was sent to the advantage whenever they could. president The infamous, anti-gay Helms education That would have been the end of the story, amendment has traditionally been offered to but the nation’s highest-ranking pro-life the AIDS appropriations bill. It provides that supporter, George Bush, vetoed the bill. no AIDS educational materials developed The bill then went back to Congress. with federal funds can promote or encourage While this was bad news for the pro-choice homosexuality. A pre-emptive strike strategy lobby, it did give AIDS advocates a chance to was used successfully last year to defeat this fix the needles and bleach provision. amendment, and was also successful this year. The House passed a new bill that had no By offering this amendment before Helms restriction on funding for needles or bleach, offered one, Senator Alan Cranston (D, CA) but Armstrong convinced the Senate to again used Senate procedure to silence Helms since restrict such funding. Procedurally, the House Cranston’s amendment could not be further and Senate had to end up in agreement over amended under the Senate rules. The strategy exactly the same bill, so the bill went back was sound in terms of Senate politics as well, over to the House for another vote. since Cranston’s amendment addressed the In the House, there was one last effort to Senate’s concern (but without a “gay remove the bleach restriction. Congressmen bashing” component), providing that no AIDS Steny Hoyer (D, MD) and Henry Waxman (D, educational material developed with federal CA), leading advocates on AIDS policy, money could be designed to promote any asked Chairman William Natcher (D, KY), sexuality in AIDS educational materials. This who was managing the bill, to drop the amendment passed unanimously, and the restriction on bleach. To the great delight of opposition was more or less co-opted. the lobbyists who had been working on this The Capitol Hill adage, “It’s not over until issue, including the ACLU, the AIDS Action it’s over” proved true as the appropriations Council and the American Psychological bill moved through the eight-month process. Association, Natcher agreed. The Senate On the Senate floor. Senator Gordon ultimately accepted the House’s new Humphrey (R, NH) successfully offered an provision, the president signed on, and AIDS anti-gay amendment that said that materials funding for fiscal year 1990, including money designed for schoolchildren could not for bleach distribution, became law. promote or encourage homosexuality, or use For those who enjoy this type of game, the the words “normal,” “natural” or “healthy” to appropriations season starts every April and describe homosexuality. But the Senate floor usually ends in October or November. is not the last word on what becomes law. With the help of sympathetic House members, lobbyists helped get the amendment dropped Laura Markowitz is an editor of a national during negotiations in the House-Senate magazine for family therapists and a lesbian conference. activist. Procedure almost defeated AIDS activists Chai Feldblum is an attorney for the on another issue. On the Senate floor. 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