SAN FRANCISCO I: Senate Committee Vote Preserves Ryan White Funds

      San Francisco would keep its $35 million annual share of federal AIDS monies under the Ryan White CARE Act reauthorization bill that cleared a Senate committee last week, defeating a move to redistribute 25% of the city's funding to other areas where the epidemic is growing, the Hearst Newspapers/Contra Costa Times reports. The Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee unanimously approved a new $1.6 billion program that would "freeze San Francisco's share of the money at within 2% of the current $35.5 million for each of five years." Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) had warned that San Francisco would lose about $8 million from the Ryan White program unless Congress continues to provide the city with an exception to the funding formula. In 1996, Congress maintained funding levels for San Francisco so that the city's share would not be cut by a new funding formula based on the city's total number of people living with AIDS, rather than the city's cumulative number of AIDS cases over the years. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) predicted the full Senate would approve the committee's bill, including "the provision that protects San Francisco's share of federal AIDS dollars" (Holland, Hearst Newspapers/Contra Costa Times, 4/13).