THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602030359
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
Days after the White House reluctantly agreed to a defense bill that would force out service members with the AIDS virus, lawmakers are beginning a bipartisan repeal effort.
They have six months to act before the military discharges more than 1,000 uniformed enlistees and officers who have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Rep. Peter Torkildsen, R-Mass., said Friday he has filed legislation to repeal the provision in the 1996 defense authorization bill, which President Clinton is expected to sign into law next week.
``If Magic Johnson can play professional basketball after five years with HIV, then a dedicated American should be able to serve his or her country in a noncombat role,'' Torkildsen said.
The White House, meanwhile, has prepared an executive order that Clinton plans to sign at the same time he approves the defense bill. A White House official, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity, said the order would establish full medical benefits for the discharged service members and their family, partial or full disability pay, education benefits, and job training.
Conservative Rep. Robert Dornan, R-Calif., wrote the AIDS discharge provision into the bill. Current rules forbid those with the AIDS virus from being deployed overseas or sent into combat, and Dornan argued that places an undue burden on military comrades who must take up the slack.
Dornan said Friday that gay rights advocates are leading opposition to his provision, and as many as half the service members with HIV are former drug addicts.
Opponents respond that thousands of service members with other serious ailments likewise are not allowed to be sent to foreign duty but are not covered by the Dornan amendment.
Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is working with fellow committee members Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and William Cohen, R-Maine, on legislation to repeal the Dornan measure.
Nunn recently recounted a letter from a sergeant with 16 years of service who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion and whose wife and two children would lose dependent health benefits with his discharge.
``The service is my life,'' the sergeant wrote. ``I've given everything I have to it. When this bill passes, I'll be out of the service and out of a job. How am I supposed to support my family?''
KEYWORDS: AIDS MILITARY by CNB