House Votes to Create Second AIDS Commission

The House, rejecting charges of political one-upmanship, voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to create a 15-member National Commission on AIDS, less than one month after President Reagan appointed the members of his own panel to study the deadly disease.

Sponsors said that the new commission would complement Reagan’s blue ribbon group and stressed that Congress was acting in a bipartisan spirit. But the issue quickly became political when several Democrats blasted the “right-wing tilt” of the President’s commission and the White House issued a statement opposing the new panel within minutes of the vote.

The legislation, which calls for an appropriation of $2 million, was approved by 355 to 68. It now moves to the Senate, where a vote is not expected until the fall.

Under the proposal, the new commission would report to Congress and the President within one year on policies for combatting the virus that is believed to have infected 1.5 million Americans. Unlike Reagan’s panel, the commission proposed by Congress would require a majority of its members to have expertise in dealing with the disease.

Charges of Bias

“That’s a major difference,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), noting that some members of Reagan’s AIDS panel--including Cardinal John J. O’Connor, Roman Catholic archbishop of New York--had come under fire from gay groups and other organizations for an alleged anti-homosexual bias and a lack of familiarity with the issue.

“I’m worried about the President’s commission being a set-up for a lot of right-wing ideologues,” Waxman said. “It enables them to make their ideas seem respectable, even though they’ve been rejected by most health care professionals.”

A White House spokesman declined comment on those charges, but said that the second proposed AIDS commission was unnecessary because it would duplicate the work of the President’s panel.

During heated debate, several Republicans criticized Democrats for trying to upstage the President. Rep. Hal Daub (R-Neb.) charged that the proposal “is pure politics . . . it’s just a move to go one up on the Administration when we already have a commission. We just don’t need this at all.”

Dannemeyer States Concern

Other critics, including Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), said that they fear the new panel will ignore a range of policy options on combatting acquired immune deficiency syndrome, such as Dannemeyer’s proposals to subject federal jail inmates and immigrants to mandatory testing for the virus.

However, Rep. J. Roy Rowland (D-Ga.), who authored the legislation, reassured opponents that the new commission would examine many policy options and would not be a rubber stamp for one point of view. The involvement of members of both parties in selecting members of the panel would guarantee a “balanced, thoughtful” perspective, he added.

“We have to put aside partisanship and philosophical differences on this issue,” Rowland said. “We are going to bring together people who are experts, who have some knowledge on AIDS. It’s something that’s crucial to the health of many people in this country.”