Like a teenager cramming for an exam the next day, the 109th Congress nearly pulled an all-nighter in a marathon flurry of activity to wrap up the legislative session on Dec. 9. Among the items accomplished was reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act ( RWCA ) .
Politics and the scramble for dollars had dogged reauthorization of Ryan White for more than a year. The House had passed one version in October, only to see it blackballed in the Senate by Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and a handful of others because their states would lose money.
A last-minute compromise pared reauthorization to three years, mandated further restructuring in the next reauthorization, and limited any jurisdiction's lost of funding to a maximum of 5 percent. That was enough to lift Clinton's hold and allow the Senate to pass the modified bill on a voice vote.
However, those changes riled Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House committee that had passed the earlier version of the RWCA. He also was upset that the Senate had not taken up a bill that modified and reauthorized the NIH. Barton said he would not even put Ryan White on the House agenda for a vote unless the Senate voted on the NIH measure.
After furious last-minute lobbying and phone calls from constituents, this legislative game of chicken ended with members of both chambers getting at least some of what they wanted. President George W. Bush thanked them, but had yet to sign the bill.
The reauthorization came after a compromise on Dec. 5, with the Senate passing it the next morning as a consent motion with no objections and sent it to the House for similar action prior to adjournment.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., played a leading role in hammering out the compromise measure ( and possibly strong-arming the senators who had placed a hold on the bill ) . His office released a statement outlining the major provisions of the changed bill.
Clinton had been one of four senators staunchly opposed to the earlier five-year reauthorization language. In a statement released at the time she said, 'Over the past year, I have been working with my colleagues to reauthorize this important piece of legislation and have been forced time and time again to oppose reauthorization proposals because of their devastating impact on New York, the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
'I am proud that we have forged a three-year compromise that contains essential protections for New York and other hard-hit states. .... However, this bill alone cannot make up for years of flat-funding for programs that provide essential care and support services across the nation.'
