Executive Summary: Progress Report

PRESIDENTIAL

ADVISORY Executive Summary
Progress Report
COUNCIL ON
JULY 8, 1996
HIV/AIDS
The AIDS crisis has generated more than its share of advisory
committees. Far too often, these committees, commissions, and councils
have issued recommendations and detailed reports that have simply gone
unheeded.
To avoid this all-too-frequent pattern-and to highlight the frank and
continuing interchange between President Clinton and his Advisory
Council on HIV/AIDS-we believe it is important to distribute not only our
recommendations to the Administration, but also the Administration's
responses, with our candid, independent evaluation of their responses.
This first progress report will be followed by others. Because the
Council's evaluation process will constantly be evolving, this report is
truly a work in progress, as are all of the efforts of the Council itself.
The differences between this report and those issued by previous
national and/or Presidential councils addressing the AIDS crisis are
illustrative of the differences between the councils themselves. President
Clinton's AIDS Council, more than any of its predecessors, reflects the
experience and expertise of those most impacted by the epidemic. Forty
percent of the Council's members are HIV-positive. One-half are lesbian,
gay, or bisexual. One-third are people of color. All Council members
have personally been affected by the epidemic.
This Council is different in other ways as well. The Council has
had unprecedented access to the President, top-level White House staff,
and cabinet officials. To a degree that has surprised many Council
members, Administration officials have rapidly addressed and
implemented many of our recommendations. Even when the
Administration has not been as responsive as we would have liked, our
views as a Council, and those of others infected with or affected by HIV,
have been heard and taken seriously.
750 17th Street, N.W., Suite 800
Weshington, DC 20503
5571095.0494.015