Jul 18, 2008  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

A global AIDS relief bill that includes language calling for the repeal of a law that bans foreign visitors and immigrants with HIV from entering the U.S. cleared a major hurdle last week when the Senate voted 65 to 3 to end a filibuster that had blocked the legislation for more than two months.
The move cleared the way for a Senate vote on the measure that was expected to occur after Blade deadline late in the week. (Visit washingtonblade.com for updates on the bill’s status.)

But the provision calling for repealing the HIV visitor and immigrant ban faced another obstacle, when reports surfaced that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) was planning to introduce an amendment calling for striking the repeal provision from the legislation, officially known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) named Sessions as the senator seeking to kill the repeal provision minutes before the Senate voted to end the PEPFAR filibuster.

Thirty-two senators, including presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, were not present and did not vote on the motion to end the filibuster, which is referred to as a cloture motion.
Under Senate rules, 60 votes are needed to break a filibuster through cloture. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who withdrew as a presidential candidate in June, voted for the cloture motion.

A campaign to repeal the HIV visitor and immigrant ban enjoys widespread, bipartisan support, and gay rights and AIDS activists were hopeful the repeal clause would remain a part of the global AIDS measure, which is expected to win approval in the House and Senate.

Most Senate Republicans have joined nearly all Senate Democrats in expressing support for the PEPFAR bill and the clause seeking repeal of the HIV visitor and immigrant ban. President Bush has also endorsed the measure with the repeal provision.

Officials with the Human Rights Campaign, and Immigration Equality, a national group that advocates for immigration rights for gays and people with HIV, said Reid has attempted to fend off efforts to remove the repeal language from the PEPFAR bill, but Senate rules make it difficult for him to do so.

“Under the rules, it may be impossible to prevent a senator from moving to strike a provision from any bill,” said Allison Herwitt, HRC’s legislative director and coordinator of HRC’s lobbying campaign to secure passage of the repeal provision.

Herwitt said HRC was working with a coalition of gay and AIDS groups, including Immigration Equality, to line up enough votes to defeat any motion to strike the repeal provision from the PEPFAR bill.

“Yes, we have heard about this threat,” said Adam Francoeur, policy coordinator for Immigration Equality. “We are working to make sure we have enough votes to keep the repeal provision in the bill.”

Earlier this year, a bipartisan coalition of senators, led by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), proposed attaching a provision to the PEPFAR bill calling for the repeal of the HIV visitors and immigrant ban. Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chair and ranking minority member, respectively, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, agreed to accept the repeal provision as part of the PEPFAR bill.

Herwitt and Francoeur said Kerry and Smith were working behind the scenes to persuade senators to oppose any attempt to remove the repeal provision from the PEPFAR bill.

Capitol Hill sources said Reid initially scheduled the cloture vote last week after many senators, both Democrats and Republicans, made plans to travel to their home states on Friday. The Senate rarely holds votes on Fridays.

Both Obama and McCain have said they support the PEPFAR bill. Obama has said he also favors repealing the HIV visitor and immigrant ban. McCain’s position on the repeal provision could not be determined by press time.

Twenty-five Senate Republicans joined 38 Democrats and two independents to vote for the cloture motion to end the filibuster against the PEPFAR bill. Twenty-three Republican senators and nine Democratic senators were among those absent from the chamber and not voting on the cloture motion. The three senators who voted against the cloture motion were Sessions (R-Ala.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).