America Living With AIDS

House to assist the Director of the Drug Abuse Policy Office to prepare a response to the
Presidential Commission recommendations. The staff created a form to standardize the
response information and sent the report to all executive branch agencies, asking them to
respond to recommendations that fell under their purview. As a result of their review,
the staff determined that "40 percent of the commission's recommendations with a federal component have already been completed, are underway or are planned. Another 30
percent are under consideration as part of the FY 1990 agency budget plans."5
On August 2, 1988, President Reagan announced the adoption of a "10-point plan of
action to advance the battle against AIDS and HIV consistent with the recommendations
of the Presidential Commission on AIDS."6 Of the 10 points included in the plan, 9 were
rephrased Presidential Commission recommendations, including 6 of the top 20 recommendations. The 9 points were: (1) concern about substance abuse and its relation to
HIV, (2) increase in community-based education and prevention, (3) acceleration of
development, approval, and distribution of AIDS-related therapeutics, (4) support for
international education and prevention efforts, (5) ensuring the safety of the blood supply, (6) health care financing reform, (7) adoption of "HIV in the workplace" guidelines,
(8) creation of a special HIV emergency fund, and (9) review of Public Health Service
plan for combating HIV and designation of a mechanism to follow up on the recommendations. The remaining point in the President's plan was a rephrased sentence from the
introduction to the Commission report, affirming the President's commitment to allocation of adequate resources to combat the epidemic. The President also requested that the
Attorney General identify the best way for the "federal government to provide direction
and leadership to encourage non-discrimination for HIV infected individuals."7
The Office of the Director of Drug Abuse Policy was asked to update the recommendations again in September and December of 1988. In July of 1989, the Public Health
Service's National AIDS Program Office (NAPO) updated the responses in a selected
number of the report chapters in preparation for congressional hearings on AIDS treatment and health care.
At the time that the National Commission on AIDS was created HHS had taken
responsibility for monitoring the response to the recommendations. The first involvement of the National Commission in the monitoring process came in working with
NAPO to select a limited number of the recommendations to make the monitoring process more efficient. National Commission staff, with the assistance of NAPO staff, eliminated from consideration those recommendations that had been completed since the
release of the report and selected those recommendations that highlighted gaps in the
federal, state, and local responsibility, as well as those recommendations that the National Commission held to be priorities, including those that addressed prevention, treatment, research, and discrimination. The National Commission also eliminated those
recommendations that were identified as statements of guidance rather than calls for specific action. Once the number of recommendations had been narrowed down, the
National Commission asked NAPO to continue to serve as the liaison between the
National Commission and the agencies responsible for action on the recommendations
and to provide the National Commission with updates on progress being made on the
recommendations. NAPO currently provides the National Commission with regular
updates on those recommendations directed at HHS (a total of 113).
Quality of Responses
On the standardized response forms developed by the White House staff, agencies are
asked to determine whether or not the recommendations are the responsibility of the
federal government, indicate whether they agree or disagree with the recommendations,

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