Reagan Fails to Back AIDS Panel’s Call for Bias Law

President Reagan ordered federal officials today not to discriminate against employees infected with the AIDS virus, but he refused to embrace a White House commission’s call to extend that protection to all Americans.

The proposal for anti-discrimination legislation--the cornerstone of the report the commission submitted on June 24--was referred to the attorney general for study.

Beyond that, the commission’s 597 recommendations were grouped into what the White House termed a 10-point “action plan” that was long on generalities, short on specifics and laden with calls for further study.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) characterized the Administration’s response to its own commission’s recommendations as a refusal to act.

“Why are they stalling?” asked Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee.

“This Administration has done its best to avoid making even a single helpful AIDS decision in the eight years of the Reagan presidency. They handpick a commission, and then don’t even have the courage to accept its recommendations,” he said in a statement.

‘Don’t Need Another Study’

“We don’t need another study,” Waxman said. “What we need is leadership, and while Dr. Koop and Admiral Watkins have given that, once again the President is hiding.”

He was referring to Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and James D. Watkins, the retired Navy admiral who headed the AIDS commission appointed by Reagan last summer.

Dr. Donald Ian Macdonald, a special presidential assistant and director of the White House Drug Abuse Policy Office, was charged with reviewing the commission’s report and formulating the Reagan response.

Macdonald told reporters in advance of a White House briefing that Watkins “obviously felt more strongly” about the need for federal anti-discrimination legislation than some Administration officials.

Watkins was out of the country today and could not be reached for reaction.

Watkins has not appeared in public with Reagan since the report was completed. The President did meet privately with the admiral on June 27 before sending the admiral out to face reporters alone on the White House driveway.

Reagan Not at Briefing

Reagan did not appear at a White House briefing at which the plan was presented by aides. Moments later, he spoke at a ceremony in the White House complex honoring senior federal employees.

Macdonald acknowledged that some unspecified Administration officials oppose anti-discrimination legislation because of their belief it would “reward the behaviors that cause (AIDS) infection.”

AIDS originally was most prevalent among homosexual males.

Defending the Administration’s refusal to support the AIDS commission’s call for federal anti-discrimination legislation, Macdonald told reporters that 36 states already have similar laws.

Moreover, he said discrimination “is not a problem” in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, cities with the largest populations of people with AIDS.