ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Congressional negotiators agreed Wednesday to repeal the new law requiring the discharge of military service members with the AIDS virus.
As they wrapped up final negotiations on a major federal budget bill, House and Senate leaders agreed to repeal the law, which was sponsored by conservative Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif. It would have forced 1,049 service members who have tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, to involuntarily retire from the military.
An angry Dornan said he would refile the bill Thursday when a House National Security personnel subcommittee that he heads was to prepare its portion of the 1997 defense budget. He had harsh words not only for President Clinton but also for his own GOP colleagues.
``This disgusting act of cowardice with my purported leaders caving in to a pro-homosexual, draft-dodging pathological liar in the White House is pathetic,'' Dornan said. ``It dooms the [Sen. Bob] Dole challenge.''
Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, led the effort in the closed-door negotiations to repeal Dornan's law.
``We have succeeded in repealing that regulation relating to HIV in the military,'' Hatfield said. ``I'm obviously delighted. It's not just that we won, it's that it's the right thing to do.''
One reason the Dornan measure was repealed so quickly was that it never received a straight up or down vote in the House or Senate last year when it was proposed. Dornan inserted it into the House defense bill in committee and it sailed through as part of the overall defense budget.
The Senate never voted on the measure last year and yielded to the House position. Clinton eventually signed the law, despite his objections to the HIV provision, saying there were more important parts of the bill that he supported.
The White House took the lead in the repeal effort, joined in the Senate by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; Sam Nunn, D-Ga.; and William Cohen, R-Maine. In March, the Senate supported the repeal in a voice vote.
An unlikely citizens' coalition joined the fight against the bill. Organizations ranging from the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign to the pro-military Air Force Association lobbied against it. Other groups opposed included the Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign War, and the American Medical Association.
Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the Dornan provision unfair. And former Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., who was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, predicted political trouble for Republicans if the law remained in effect.
``This blunder will dog our party until it's repealed once and for all,'' Goldwater wrote in a letter to Republicans negotiating the budget. ``We will see this repeal amendment offered again and again. And the closer we get to the conventions and the fall campaign, the worse it will get.''
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