Rep. Dornan Revives HIV Military Discharge

Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) Thursday won subcommittee approval of a bill calling for mandatory discharge of military personnel who test positive for the virus that causes AIDS.

The bill is a watered-down version of a law that was reluctantly signed by President Clinton only three months ago but was repealed Thursday as part of the 1996 federal budget deal between the White House and Republican congressional leaders.

The provision would have affected 1,049 members of the military, who, like others suffering from cancer, heart disease or asthma, cannot be deployed overseas but are otherwise able to perform their duties.

The newest version, approved by the military personnel subcommittee that Dornan chairs, proposes increasing benefits for HIV-positive service members by providing “medical retirements,” including full health care for them and dependents, as well as an income.

As part of its consideration of the 1997 Defense Authorization bill, the subcommittee also approved Dornan’s proposed reversal of the Clinton administration’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy concerning gays in the military. Under that proposal, all incoming service members would be asked their sexual orientation.

Under current guidelines, service members are not asked whether they are homosexuals and authorities cannot investigate gay men or lesbians for mere suspicion that they may be homosexuals. But gays can be discharged from the service if they declare their sexual orientation.

Dornan said he is reopening the gays in the military issue--not out of vindictiveness, as his opponents have claimed, but because Sen. Bob Dole, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has “no campaign plan.”

“The leadership was saying, ‘Let’s win the election first; let’s win the White House. I’m not sure we have a battle plan to win the White House,” Dornan said.

A third Dornan proposal, postponed until next week when the full National Security Committee meets, would prohibit a former spouse of a military service member from collecting part of the member’s retirement pay if the spouse remarries. Committee members agreed the amendment needed more study because complex community property laws in divorce courts vary from state to state.

The panel’s debate on the HIV and gays in the military issues were somewhat subdued, because Democrats were not given copies of the amendments until they walked into the hearing room. Democrats said they would offer amendments on those issues next week.

Rep. Jane Harman (R-Rolling Hills), noting the political reality that the HIV law was being repealed and that Defense Secretary William J. Perry had warned against placing such issues in the defense bill, urged Dornan to drop the fight.

“Putting emotional, divisive issues right smack in the middle of a bill we need to pass. . . . I feel very strongly this is a debate we don’t need to have,” Harman said.

But Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) defended Dornan. “I applaud you for taking the tough ones. I think you’ve taken a lot of heat and sometimes you have to take the tough ones.”