America Living With AIDS

AMERICA Living With

ty of the recommendations. Without comprehensive responses, the National Commission is unable to distinguish between those recommendations that have been successfully
completed and those that warrant additional action. Additionally, the agency responses
currently collected provide no information to the National Commission as to why those
recommendations that have been planned or under consideration for three years have
never been implemented.
Action on Additional Presidential Commission Recommendations
A number of recommendations that the federal government acted on were not among
the 113 identified by the National Commission. For example, federal agencies have taken
action on Presidential Commission recommendations concerning workplace discrimination, housing discrimination, and immigration policy. The Presidential Commission
asked that "[a]ll federal agencies should serve as a role model for the private sector by
immediately adopting and implementing the employment policies for HIV infected
workers described in the Office of Personnel Management guidelines." When President
Reagan announced the adoption of his "10-point plan of action" against AIDS and HIV
he echoed the Presidential Commission's recommendation by directing that "every federal agency adopt a policy based on the Office of Personnel guidelines on how to treat
HIV infected persons in the workplace."8 According to the Office of Personnel Management's evaluation of federal "AIDS in the workplace" policies, entitled "Implementation
of AIDS policy at the Installation Level," only five federal agencies had not yet implemented "AIDS in the workplace" policies, and these five all reported having drafts currently in the approval process.9
The second recommendation stated that "federal antidiscrimination protection for
persons with disabilities, including persons with HIV infection, should be expanded to
cover housing that does not receive federal funds."10 The Fair Housing Amendments
Act of 1988 revised the Fair Housing Act to protect handicapped persons. The law itself
does not contain specific language regarding HIV infection, but the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, in its final rule implementing the law, included HIV
in the listing of diseases that constitute a handicap."11
There has also been considerable federal action on issues pertaining to HIV and immigration policies. The Presidential Commission concurred with the World Health Organization's statement that "screening of international travelers for HIV would require an
unjustified, immense diversion of resources from other critical programs of education,
protection of the blood supply and care."12 Prior to 1987, HHS had the power to designate the diseases to be included on the list of "dangerous contagious diseases" that served
as warrants for the exclusion of persons wishing to enter the United States. In 1987
Congress added an amendment to the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1987 (P.L.
100-71) that directed the President to add HIV infection to the "dangerous contagious
diseases" list.
In 1989 a number of scientific, medical, and humanitarian organizations criticized the
current U.S. visa practices.13 In protest to these practices, expected participants to both
the 6th International Conference on AIDS scheduled for San Francisco in June of 1990,
and the 19th International Congress on Hemophilia scheduled for Washington, D.C. in
August of 1990, announced their intention to boycott those meetings unless visa restrictions were changed. In December of 1989, the National Commission on AIDS released a
background paper on AIDS and immigration and called upon the Department of State,
the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services to "conduct a comprehensive review of immigration policies as they regard communicable diseases, particularly HIV infection, focusing on public health needs."14 In response to the

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