Senate Panel Passes Budget Bill for District of Columbia

Senate appropriators unanimously approved the District of Columbia's $5.8 billion fiscal 2003 budget Thursday, proposing to end a two-year-old ban on city taxpayer support for drug needle exchange programs. The Senate panel's action sets up a likely rematch of last winter's clash with the House of Representatives, which insisted on placing the restriction in the budget bill and prevailed in final negotiations.

District leaders embraced yesterday's vote as an affirmation of home rule. "This is a grand slam," said Tony Bullock, spokesperson for Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D). Bullock thanked Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-Mich.), chairs of the Senate and House Appropriations subcommittees on the District, for seeking to reduce congressional strings in the last two years.

Congress in 1988 prohibited federal support of programs supplying clean needles to intravenous drug users to combat the spread of AIDS, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases. Two years ago, lawmakers extended the ban in the District to deny local tax support, and effectively shut down the city's sole private program -- which distributed several thousand free needles each month -- by prohibiting it from operating within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, day-care centers, public housing and other areas with children.

The Senate preserved the ban of federal funds but allows the District to spend locally raised tax dollars. Thirty-five states operate 113 programs, and 38 programs in 17 states receive non- federal government funding. Opponents of the programs say they foster illegal activity and promote drug use as an acceptable lifestyle. Supporters say government health research shows that the programs do not increase drug use but reduce the spread of disease.

The District's AIDS case rate at the end of 2000 was 153 per 100,000 people, ten times the national rate of 14.4 per 100,000. City health officials said last winter that 6,649 residents were known to be living with AIDS and 15,700 others were HIV-positive. "Lives are at stake. It's not just a home rule issue," said Paul E. Strauss (D), a D.C. statehood lobbyist and shadow senator.

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