State Senate Reverses Itself, Passes AIDS Measure

The state Senate reversed itself Thursday and passed, without a vote to spare, a heavily amended bill aimed at combatting the AIDS epidemic in California and protecting victims of the fatal disease from job discrimination.

“The clock is ticking like it never has before,” warned Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), who noted that about 500 new cases of the deadly ailment occur each month in California and that 2,000 have developed since the Senate first rejected the bill last September.

On a 21-13 vote, the exact simple majority required, the Senate returned the bill to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments.

The measure, authored by Assemblyman Art Agnos (D-San Francisco), barely squeaked out of the Assembly last June, and he fought doggedly for the bill in the Senate only to see it fail for lack of three votes on the last night of the 1987 session.

The Senate’s change of heart Thursday was especially sweet for Agnos, who has been a champion of gay rights causes and the legislative fight against AIDS, because it was his last day as a member of the Legislature. Today, he is scheduled to take office as the new mayor of San Francisco.

Clearly pleased, Agnos told reporters that he is “optimistic” that Gov. George Deukmejian, who has vetoed similar bills in the past, will look favorably on the bill this time around. He said that, in seeking to meet Deukmejian’s objections, he had worked closely with the governor’s staff to devise an acceptable bill.

Agnos said gubernatorial staff members told him that they are “going to recommend that the governor take a very serious, positive look at this bill,” which he termed “one of the top bills” of his 11-year career in the Legislature.

Donna Lucas, deputy press secretary to Deukmejian, said the governor has taken no position on the bill.

Final Assembly passage of the measure is expected next week.

In the Senate, the favorable votes were all cast by Democrats and independent Sen. Quentin L. Kopp of San Francisco. Two Democrats, Sens. Ruben S. Ayala of Chino and Joseph B. Montoya of Whittier, joined the GOP in voting “no.” Others abstained.

For Senate Republicans, a major stumbling block was a provision in the bill that would write into law a ban on job discrimination against AIDS victims.

Last year, the state Fair Employment and Housing Commission, whose members are Deukmejian appointees, ruled that AIDS is a “physical handicap” and that its victims deserve special protection against job discrimination. The Agnos bill would give the administrative ruling more clout by making it the law.

However, Sen. John Doolittle of Rocklin, the Senate GOP caucus chairman and the author of rival AIDS legislation, warned that small restaurant operators might be disadvantaged by the bill.

He said that food workers with AIDS could accidentally cut themselves with a knife and that their blood could come in contact with other people and infect them. Yet, he said, the employer could not legally dismiss such an employee.

But Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) and Hart noted that there have been few if any such cases reported to health authorities.

Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), an opponent of the Agnos bill, said he agreed that AIDS victims should be classified as physically handicapped. But he suggested that food handlers with AIDS should be exempted because they pose “a risk to public safety and to fellow employees.”

The bill, which would carry out the recommendations of U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop for coping with the fatal disease, was heavily amended in the Senate to try to remove the opposition of various interest groups, including the influential California Medical Assn.

The measure would create a 15-member commission to monitor the AIDS epidemic and make recommendations to the governor and Legislature on policies and changes needed to prevent the transmission of AIDS, promote education, evaluate research, and examine the increasingly expensive cost of patient care.

The Agnos measure would also relax strict confidentiality standards enacted in 1985 to protect the privacy of persons tested for exposure to the AIDS virus. For example, present law prohibits a physician from telling fellow health care professionals that a patient has AIDS unless the patient agrees to the disclosure in writing.

At the urging of doctors and nurses, the Agnos bill would enable the entire medical treatment team to be told that the patient has AIDS or has been exposed to the AIDS virus. Additionally, doctors would be allowed to administer the AIDS antibody test with a person’s oral--instead of written--consent.

During debate, Senate Leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and other Democrats appealed for “compassion and reason” in trying to control AIDS and scolded some opponents of the bill for using “panic” to frighten “everybody that doomsday is coming.”

Hart noted that several AIDS ballot initiatives have been proposed, including one by political extremist Lyndon LaRouche. “It would be a great tragedy if we abrogated our responsibilities on this issue to the initiative writers of whatever persuasion,” he told the Senate.