A Well-Aimed Boot for HIV Rule : House should follow Senate lead on military discharge mandate

The U.S. Senate has demonstrated wisdom by voting to repeal a rider to the defense appropriations bill that would require the armed forces to discharge service personnel infected with the AIDS virus. The question now is whether the House can put aside false morality and go along.

Earlier this year, President Clinton had to agree to the HIV rider because his only alternative would have been to veto the entire appropriations bill, passed in February. So unless the HIV rule is expunged in the next week or so, the military must start expelling more than 1,000 members within six months, regardless of their ability to perform their duty. Many of these servicemen and servicewomen are military experts whose loss would be a shameful waste, particularly in a time of fiscal austerity. Moreover, the rider is so mean-spirited that it requires termination of disability pay, benefits for dependents and commissary privileges after two years.

There is no groundswell among the brass and their congressional champions for this injustice. It has been opposed by Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), both highly influential in military matters. The main backer of the rider is Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), badly miscast as chairman of the House subcommittee on military personnel. He is hardly the sort of politician one would turn to for leadership or insight on the matter of HIV infection.

In this cause, Clinton has shown more gumption than he did when he caved in to political pressures and abandoned his promise to halt the discharge of gay service members in favor of the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The predictable failure of that policy is apparent in a recent finding that local commanders are flouting the law and being as aggressive as ever in asking about the sexual proclivities of their troops and hounding gays out of the service. In fact, discharges for homosexuality are up, not down, since the policy went into effect. Clinton and Pentagon leaders should swiftly investigate and punish these insubordinate commanders, even giving them a taste of their own bitter medicine by separating them from service if they cannot follow the rule.

For now, the more immediate issue is repealing the senseless HIV provision. The House conferees can drop it in conference with the Senate, or perhaps there will be a separate vote on the Senate repeal. Either way, it is to be hoped that more compassionate and intelligent heads than Dornan’s prevail.