The Senate, pushing aside objections by Sen. Jesse Helms, is moving toward a vote on a $600-million-a-year bill to help states and cities cope with the costs of AIDS. Passage was assured, both sides said, as more than two-thirds of the Senate's members, 67, were cosponsors of the bill. The Senate voted 95-3 on Tuesday to limit debate, a procedural step made necessary to proceed after Helms, R-N.C., erected parliamentary roadblocks. Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, tentatively scheduled a vote for today as the Senate resumed considering amendments. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called the overwhelming vote Tuesday a clear signal the Senate intends to approve the measure. A similar bill was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and awaits floor action. It contains some different provisions and would authorize the spending of more than $800 million a year. The Senate agreed to a series of amendments to the bill, including one dedicating it to Ryan White, who died April 8 at the age of 18. His six-year struggle against the disease and the discrimination it brought won him widespread attention and admiration. ``The spirit of this brave and gallant young person is very much a part of this legislation,'' Kennedy said. White's mother watched from the Senate gallery as the Senate debated the bill. Jeanne White of Cicero, Ind., later said she was angered by a charge by Helms that homosexuals were cynically exploiting her son's death to push their own causes. ``I was very irate about it,'' she said. ``Ryan didn't feel like that at all. I felt he was putting words in my mouth and in Ryan's mouth,'' she said. ``Ryan always felt he did not blame anybody, so why should you.'' White contracted the disease through a blood transfusion. Homosexual contact and illegal intravenous drug injections are primary methods of transmitting the disease. Helms, acknowledging his objections would be futile, charged that too much money as being spent on AIDS at the expense of other diseases, and that the money would encourage homosexuality. ``What originally began as a measured response to a public health emergency has become a weapon, frankly, for the deterioration if not the destruction of America's Judeo-Christian value system,'' he said. Kennedy charged Helms with misrepresenting and distorting the bill. The Senate agreed to an amendment requiring states or local governments to receiving money under the measure to carry out what they decide is an appropriate program of notification of partners of people testing positively for the AIDS-causing virus. It rejected on a 65-33 vote an amendment offered by Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., that would let states with fewer than 100 cases of AIDS to spend their share of the money on other diseases. Supporters of the bill criticized Helms' arguments that AIDS was spread through ``immorality.'' ``We don't reject the cancer patient who didn't try to stop smoking,'' said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Helms' home state of North Carolina is a major producer of tobacco. Only Sens. Gordon Humphrey, R-N.H., and Steven Symms, R-Idaho, joined Helms in voting against the debate limitation. Supporters described the measure as emergency relief for communities and public health systems overburdened by patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The bill provides $300 million for metropolitan areas with the largest number of AIDS patients: Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Newark, N.J.; Philadelphia; San Francisco; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Washington, D.C. Those areas have reported 60 percent of the nation's AIDS cases, sponsors said. The money would be used to care for AIDS patients and for support programs. Another $300 million would go to states to develop comprehensive AIDS care programs.
