SENATORS PROPOSE AIDS DISASTER RELIEF FOR CITIES AND STATES

On March 6 Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced a bill to provide $500 million disaster relief to areas heavily impacted by AIDS. The bill is patterned after relief programs for areas hit by disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes -- for example, the $3 billion appropriated by Congress for the recent earthquake near San Francisco. Both California senators, Alan Cranston and Pete Wilson, are among 18 co-sponsors of the bill.

About half of the money will go to 13 cities which together have about 60 percent of the U. S. cases of AIDS: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Juan, and Washington, D. C. The rest of the money would go to states, depending on their numbers of AIDS cases. Different areas will be able to use the money to develop the kinds of programs most suitable for them.

If the bill becomes law in its current form, San Francisco will receive about $40 million for AIDS disaster relief.