Sorting Out AIDS Issues

The foresight of the Deukmejian Administration in creating the California AIDS Leadership Committee now provides state government with an effective and appropriate means of resolving complicated legislative controversies regarding AIDS. The state has an opportunity to demonstrate to the nation its leadership in handling these urgent but complex issues.

Bipartisan efforts within the Legislature, to work out a consensus regarding about 150 AIDS-related bills now pending, have had limited success, but many of the issues have been left unresolved. Under the normal course of operations, the measures would go back to their respective committees next week for separate hearings and votes, with some ultimately moving to the floor for final action. The very multiplicity of the bills and the absence of solid information concerning many of the issues indicate that this procedure could do harm to the efforts of public-health workers to contain the pandemic. There is political pressure for action, to seem to be doing something, that risks doing the wrong things for the right reasons.

The creation of the AIDS Leadership Committee by Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer, director of the state Department of Health Services, provides the appropriate resource for sorting out these complexities. Kizer established the committee in response to Gov. George Deukmejian’s designation of the department as the lead state agency on AIDS. He is now completing the recruitment of members, drawing on leading experts in the field. The initial meeting is set for the end of June, in plenty of time to be helpful to the Legislature in resolving these problems.

Unfortunately, there is some resistance within the Legislature to referring some of the complex proposals to the AIDS Leadership Committee. We are confident that the governor can overcome the hesitancy. The prudence reflected in the creation of the committee by his Administration in the first place is reassuring. The use of the committee in cooperation with the leaders of the Legislature would demonstrate a nonpartisan response to the disease, an exercise in responsible leadership in the absolute interest of every Californian.