Bush Says Nation Is on ‘Wartime Footing’ Against AIDS, Assails Bias

President Bush, proclaiming the government “on a wartime footing” to find a cure for AIDS, today urged an end to discrimination against AIDS sufferers in the workplace.

“We’re in a fight against a disease, not a fight against people. And we will not and we must not tolerate discrimination,” he said in a speech to the National Leadership Coalition on AIDS.

Bush’s comments reflected no new policy initiatives on the deadly disease, nor did he address the controversial issue of immigration restrictions on people infected with the AIDS virus.

Instead, he touted the $3.5 billion he is seeking this year to fund AIDS treatment, education and research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

“We’re on a wartime footing at NIH and CDC. Tonight, like every night, the lights will burn late in Bethesda and Atlanta, as a group of American pioneers work to solve this problem. If they do--I should say, when they do--it will be one of the greatest things our nation could do for the world.”

Bush was interrupted several times by AIDS activists.

Urvashi Vaid, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, waved a sign reading, “Talk Is Cheap. AIDS Funding Is Not.” Vaid, who was escorted out by security personnel, later said she thought Bush said some good things but should have addressed the immigration issue.

Bush eventually paused and interrupted his speech to say he hoped that he could help the protesters understand that “not only you care, but we care, too, and I’m going to continue to do my very, very best.”

Five protesters were arrested before Bush arrived when they tried to gain admittance to the conference to hear the President’s speech.

Bush called for compassion, saying that he and his wife, Barbara, have lost friends to the disease, friends for whom their love “was just as great and just as intense as for anyone lost to heart disease or cancer or accidents.”

Bush called on Congress to pass legislation barring discrimination against those infected with the virus, and he urged business executives in his audience to keep HIV-infected people in the work force.

“They can serve many more productive years with no threat to you, your other workers or your companies,” he said.

The immigration issue has prompted several organizations to announce they will boycott an international conference on AIDS in San Francisco this summer. They want Bush to lift immigration restrictions on AIDS-infected people.

The White House, however, has been trying to deflect the heat to Congress, saying the Administration has done all that its authority allows.

AIDS activists had hoped that Bush would use his appearance today before the National Business Leadership Conference on AIDS--his first major speech on AIDS--to address the visa issue, but he did not mention it.