Subject: House-Senate Negotiators Agree To Repeal of HIV-Discharge Measure
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 20:12:21 -0400

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NEWS from the
Human Rights Campaign

1101 14th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
email:  [email-masked]
WWW:    http://www.hrcusa.org
________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, April 24, 1996
                                
          HOUSE-SENATE NEGOTIATORS AGREE TO REPEAL OF
              DISCRIMINATORY HIV-DISCHARGE MEASURE

  Omnibus Budget Bill Would Save Jobs of 1,049 Service Members

WASHINGTON -- House and Senate budget negotiators agreed today on a measure
that would repeal a discriminatory HIV-discharge provision in the 1996
Department of Defense authorization.
     The repeal was one of the final sticking points during marathon
negotiations on the Omnibus Rescissions and Appropriations Act, a
long-overdue bill to fund many federal agencies for the remainder of fiscal
1996. The repeal amendment had been contained in the Senate-passed version of
the bill but not in the House version. It would overturn a measure inserted
to the 1996 defense authorization by Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif.
     "Bob Dornan lost today  and he lost big because his provision was
clearly malicious and unnecessary," said Winnie Stachelberg, senior health
policy advocate for the Human Rights Campaign. "Unfortunately, this issue
seems to be an obsession for him and he intends to bring it up all over again
Thursday when he chairs a subcommittee hearing on the 1997 defense
authorization bill."
     Budget negotiators and the White House announced agreement on the
overall bill late today. Congress has until midnight Thursday to pass the
$160 billion legislation or risk shutting down the federal government.
     On March 19, the Senate unanimously passed an amendment, sponsored by
Sens. William Cohen, R-Maine, and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to overturn the
discharge of all service members with the AIDS virus. Currently, 1,049
active-duty service members are
known to have HIV, according to the Pentagon.
     The discharge provision singles out service members with HIV and treats
them differently from those with other chronic medical conditions. Before it
was enacted, service members with HIV  were allowed to serve their country as
long as they could perform their duties, but they were not deployed overseas.
The same policy applies to service members who have other chronic medical
conditions such as diabetes, asthma, heart disease or cancer. 
     The Pentagon has said that about half the HIV-positive service members
are married, and on average, have served for a decade. Nearly 20 percent of
them are officers.
     The bipartisan repeal effort has had the support of Joint Chiefs of
Staff Chairman Gen. John Shalikashvili, Secretary of Defense William J.
Perry, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown, the Veterans of Foreign
Wars, the Disabled American Veterans  and the Air Force Association.  In
addition, former GOP Sen. Barry Goldwater and conservative columnists Charles
Krauthammer and George Will oppose the Dornan provision. 
     Goldwater, in a letter earlier this month to budget negotiators, noted
that he was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee when the original
policy on service members with HIV was put in place by President Reagan and
then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. "Their policy has a 10-year proven
track record of success," Goldwater wrote. "If it isn't broken, don't break
it." 
     Shalikashvili and Perry dubbed the Dornan provision "both unwarranted
and unwise," and "unnecessary as a matter of sound military policy." 
     In addition, the Justice Department determined that the discharge
provision is unconstitutional and President Clinton put the full force of his
administration behind the drive to repeal it.
     The Human Rights Campaign is the largest national lesbian and gay
political organization, with members throughout the country. It effectively
lobbies Congress, provides campaign support and educates the public to ensure
that lesbian and gay Americans can be open, honest and safe at home, at work
and in the community.

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