Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 23, 1995                   TAG: 9506230071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

OFFICE ITSELF MAY BE EXCISED

And would anyone notice? After all, the position already has been vacant for more than six months, since Joycelyn Elders left.

For all the publicity surrounding Henry Foster's rejection, the Office of Surgeon General, with a budget of slightly more than $1 million, has little inherent power.

Indeed, it may not be around much longer. As part of their budget-cutting efforts, congressional Republicans are looking at abolishing it.

The power of the office flows almost entirely from the ability of its occupant to command public attention and serve as a national health conscience.

Surgeon General Luther Terry startled the country in 1964 when he issued the first report linking smoking with lung cancer. C. Everett Koop tackled the growing AIDS epidemic head-on in the 1980s. Thomas Parran, FDR's surgeon general in the 1930s and 1940s, publicized problems of venereal disease.

Congress created the office in 1798 to deal with merchant seamen who returned from exotic ports carrying cholera, yellow fever and typhoid, but its role has changed substantially since then.

Now, even if President Clinton finds another nominee, the Senate may hold off considering the candidate until it decides whether to continue the office.